


You Send Me

by thelonelywriter



Category: Supernatural
Genre: ....at one point or another, Alpha Dean, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Claiming Bites, Friends With Benefits, Happy Ending, Implied Mpreg, Knotting, Light Angst, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Misunderstandings, Omega Castiel, Omega Castiel/Alpha Dean Winchester, POV Dean Winchester, Porn With Plot, Rimming, Roommates, Rough Sex, Slow Build, Slow Build Castiel/Dean Winchester, Smut, but for now, i might end up adding some tags if i remember an important, just a bit here and there to keep thing spicy u kno, more tags that i can't think of r lurkin in the back of my head, one - Freeform, the tags are a mess i'm soRRY, we have these lovely tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 01:34:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13423911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonelywriter/pseuds/thelonelywriter
Summary: Some months go by of Dean and Cas living together without a hitch.Some months go by of Cas and Dean living together without Cas' heats being an issue.And some more months go by before something shifts.It takes awhile, but Dean realizes soon enough that he's in a little too deep...





	You Send Me

**Author's Note:**

> *immediate notice* - i'm sorry!! if some of the paragraphs are fucked up!!! aos is being a pissy little baby and it won't let me format things like i usually do so i just spent like twenty minutes having to format fuckin 26k words and i'm ready 2 die alright
> 
> another thing:
> 
> they always say don't slam ur work so i won't but i will just tell u guys that i do /not/ like this piece, i'm not fond of it, but i wanted to post it for feedback and i wanted to post it because hopefully there's at least one of you out there who's into this (i'm prayin at least)
> 
> i kind of consider this me shaking off some writing dust since i haven't written a longer fic in a bit and also haven't written smut in ages (pls pls forgive me if the smut is terrible i tried ok) so yeah just... have mercy on me u guys
> 
> and enjoy!!! (also title based off the song "you send me" by sam cooke)

Dean kind of knew that it was coming, to be fair. It wasn’t like him and Benny never talked, they were roommates after all in a fairly small apartment just on the edge of the city. There wasn’t much breathing space or much room in the house, and there wasn’t much room between them emotionally either. They had been through the entirety of college together, having began sharing the apartment in junior year. So, yeah, Dean kind of knew, just from what Benny told Dean about Andrea, from what Benny explained was going on in the occasional week long breaks he would have away from his and Dean’s apartment to stay with Andrea.

Dean knew that Benny was going to move out, only to move in with Andrea.

“We’ve just both agreed that it might be time to get a little more serious. And you know that she has an empty apartment, she’s a lot more well-off than us,” Benny had told Dean the morning the news broke and Dean was left sighing into his cereal with a frown that he wished he could have turned upside down. He was happy for Benny, really, but the fact that Dean was nowhere near close to finding a mate, nor was he close to, well, a solid relationship kind of put a damper on things.

“Who am I supposed to split the rent with now? You know that I can’t pay it on my own what with all the college debt I’m in,” Dean had brought up eventually when things had become a reality, when Benny had started packing boxes and clearing out his bedroom.

“Find another roommate,” was his simple response gained with a shrug of his shoulders as though it was nothing.

Find another roommate.

Dean wanted to laugh at that.

Finding a roommate was not as easy as most thought. 

Dean had been extremely lucky to connect with Benny the way he did and to be able to find a place and negotiate a split rent, and part of the reason it was so easy was because Dean and Benny had already spent two years at college together, both of them sharing a dorm so they knew they already had no problem living together. Now, however, if Dean put up ads looking for a roommate, he would have no idea who he was getting in his apartment and he had no idea how to weed out the crazy people from the ones he could possibly manage. 

Dean had heard that people held interviews sometimes, and he thought to himself, as he bid Benny a final goodbye (though they both promised to keep in touch) that maybe that was the key to finding a new roommate. However, he wasn’t too thrilled about sitting down with a stranger at his kitchen table and asking them things like ‘Can you stand the washer and dryer running late at night since I can never manage to find time to do my laundry during the day?’.

So, Dean kind of floundered for a bit, noticing the month’s upcoming rent, thanking Benny internally for the last deposit he had made in Dean’s bank account to split the rent one last time. It was like some sort of impending doom, however. Dean knew that he had already wasted time, Benny had given him a heads up after all. Still, Dean simply didn’t know how on Earth he was going to find a roommate. He sort of thought it was impossible for a few weeks, thought that there was no way he would manage to pull things off.  
The Universe had different plans for Dean Winchester, however.

\---

It was a normal Friday and Dean was bored to an almost painful extent. With Benny gone, Dean didn’t have the opportunity to sit down with him and watch a movie, or have a debate on what kind of takeout they should get. There was no one to play cards with and no one to drink with. Dean was alone and bored and, alright, maybe a little sad, so he caved, finally, and sat down on the couch, phone in hand as he dialed Benny’s number, thumb hovering over the call button until his resolve faded.

“Hello?” was the answer that came after only a few rings. Dean immediately smiled softly at the familiar voice that almost calmed something inside of him. He hadn’t called Benny since he left, felt like he didn't want to bother him. But, now, he was finally caving.

“Hey, Benny, it’s Dean,” Dean replied, relaxing back into the old worn out couch that him and Benny had found at a yard sale and brought in when they very first moved in.  


“Dean, how are you?” Benny said, his tone sounding upbeat.

“Not too bad,” Dean lied. “How’s your new life with Andrea?” Dean inquired, somewhat teasing, somewhat serious knowing that Benny really was getting more involved with Andrea with each passing day. They had just moved in together after all.

“Ah, it’s going alright. Moving in is a bitch, I got more boxes than I thought I’d have. Got way too much shit that I probably need to get rid of,” Benny sighed. 

“Yeah, moving is terrible,” Dean agreed, vividly remembering the move from college into an actual apartment.

“Yeah, but that’s just an aside. How’s it going with you?” Benny inquired. Dean sighed and shook his head, shifting around and pulling his legs up on the couch.

“I’m getting by,” Dean told Benny who laughed a little at that. 

“What, living alone isn’t great? I can recall some fights we had where you said living alone would be a lot more ideal,” Benny drawled. Dean rolled his eyes, stretching his legs out on the couch. It was true that a few fights between him and Benny had arose in the years that they lived together, occasionally resulting in Dean saying he’d rather live alone. Now that he was actually living alone, however, he was realizing that his previous arguments may not have been as valid as initially thought.

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in,” Dean grumbled, knowing that Benny was smiling on the other line.

“You got any luck finding a new roommate yet?” Benny inquired.

“No,” Dean snorted as though the question was a no brainer.

“Are you even gonna try and find one?” Benny questioned, sounding somewhat teasing. Dean couldn’t help but roll his eyes once more.

“Of course I’m gonna try. I just… don’t know where to start,” Dean told Benny.

“Well, put out some ads. Craigslist or something,” Benny replied. 

“It doesn’t just work that way,” Dean argued.

“Oh? How so?” Benny inquired on the other line, sounding a little interested. Dean sighed and let his head fall back against the armrest of the couch.

“It’s too complicated. Y’know, I’ve got my criteria for a roommate, I need them to be able to pay rent, I need to get along with them. And, y’know, if they’re an omega, I’m gonna need to work something out,” Dean went on.

“Do I hear some discrimination against omegas over the phone here, Dean?” Benny teased, grinning. Dean groaned.

“Benny, you know I have nothing against omegas.”

“But you just don’t want to live with one.”

“Well…” Dean began, sighing once more. “It’s complicated.”

“Then explain,” Benny replied simply. Dean took a breath and rubbed a hand across his forehead.

“I seriously don’t have anything against omegas, it’s just that I don’t really see a way of living, as an alpha, with an omega, in a way that will work out for everyone. And I’m not saying this in a racist sort of way, I’m saying it in a ‘biology rules us all in the end’ way. You know, if I go into rut and there’s an omega in this tiny shack of an apartment, I’m not gonna be very happy. And I’m sure if an omega goes into heat with an alpha in this tiny shack of an apartment, they aren’t gonna be excited either,” Dean explained. “And to top it off, do you know how shitty it’ll be if it’s a claimed omega with a mate? You think their alpha is gonna be jumping up and down that their omega lives with another alpha?”

“A claimed omega isn’t gonna take an opportunity to live with an alpha that isn’t theirs,” Benny argued, and Dean threw a hand up in the air.

“Then see? That rules out an entire mass of people. There are probably plenty of claimed omegas out there who need a place to live, but they can’t come live here all because I’m an alpha,” Dean went on.

“Well, now you just sound like you’re saying being an alpha is a burden. You do know that omegas are harshly discriminated against in society, right?” Benny told Dean almost matter of factly in a way that made Dean want to groan.

“Benny, I took the same Socio Economics class that you did,” Dean pointed out.

“Oh, come on, that was a year ago. Plenty of time for you to forget what you learned and start building up reasons why you don’t want to live with an omega,” Benny teased back.

“Benny, I’m serious, you know me and you know that I don’t have anything against omegas. I just don’t think that it’ll work as a living situation,” Dean explained. Benny sighed.

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I just think that maybe you should keep options as open as possible since you need a roommate and you need one fast. You’re gonna lose a lot of options if you rule out omegas as possible roommates,” Benny told Dean which, Dean knew was true. Omegas, though they weren’t as abundant as alphas, made up a fair amount of the population, and there were even more omegas than betas.

“Well, what do you suggest I do? I need a roommate by the end of this month, so maybe if you helped me spitball ideas I’d be more likely to make at least some headway,” Dean proposed.

“What about if you call up old friends? People you knew in college,” Benny suggested. Dean thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“Do you really think that I’ll be lucky enough to find someone that I knew, was possibly friends with, that is in need of a place to live, is able to split rent, and someone I can stand?” Dean asked almost incredulously. It did seem like a stretch to him. He may have been popular back in school, but he only had so many friends he could still call and talk to.

“Hey, at least if you don’t find someone, they might know someone who’s looking for a place,” Benny replied. Dean paused and thought it over before giving a slow nod.

“You may have a point,” Dean began cautiously.

“Well, I say try it and see what happens. Plus, it can’t really hurt to get back in touch with some old friends,” Benny added on. Dean nodded a little hesitantly.

“I guess you’re right.”

“I’ll text you some numbers of some people I knew or people we both knew, how does that sound?” Benny questioned. Dean sighed but nodded again.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

\---

It was that night that Benny texted Dean the numbers of a lot of old college friends, and it was the next day that Dean sat down at his small little kitchen table with his phone and his laptop ready and open, a cup of coffee next to him.

He started out doing things methodically, opening up the notes on his laptop and typing up some deciding factors on what would make or break a possible roommate. Then, things descended a little, however, and he got a bit distracted by some of the numbers he had gathered, started thinking back on memories he had had with those people. Then, when he finally started calling people he was so caught up in actually getting caught up with whoever it was, he kind of forgot the task at hand and ending up just blowing off the whole searching thing.

Soon enough, he was sat with half a cup of coffee, some fresh memories, and some dwindling determination when he reached a number on the list of one old classmate Anna Milton. 

Dean immediately remembered her. She was years ahead of her class therefore putting her in just a grade below Dean even despite her being a lot younger. She was a beta and she was very pretty and always very kind. Her and Dean had clicked, but not on a dating or sexual level, more on the level of good friends. They had seen each other around campus a lot and had hung out a lot, plus they had shared a lot of mutual friends.

Dean smiled as he thought over memories of her and thought to himself that it would be too good to be true if she was actually in need of a place to stay. He almost debated not calling her, but figured that even if she didn’t need a place to stay, maybe Dean could do some catching up. Which, wasn’t what he should have been doing, but Dean was always good at procrastination. The phone rang a few times and Dean simply tapped his fingers on the table, waiting until it stopped and someone picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, is this Anna? Anna Milton?” Dean inquired, figuring that it was since the voice on the other line was very familiar.

“Speaking,” she simply replied. Dean grinned.

“Hey, Anna, it’s Dean, Dean Winchester. We went to college together, remember?” Dean said. There was a short pause before Anna spoke again, sounding like she was smiling this time.

“Of course I remember, how could I forget?” she replied, and Dean grinned even wider. 

“Hey, how’ve you been?” Dean questioned.

“I’ve been good,” she told Dean, still sounding rather upbeat. “How have you been?”

“Eh, not so bad,” Dean replied, leaning back in his chair.

“I haven’t talked to you in like a year,” Anna mused on the other line. “You still sound the same,” she went on.

“Well, I hope that’s a good thing,” Dean teased.

“Of course it’s a good thing. We used to be so close back in college. Our dorms used to be right near each other,” she told Dean who nodded.

“I remember clearly,” Dean replied.

“How’s life having graduated?” she questioned. Dean shrugged, crossing an arm over his chest.

“It’s alright,” Dean began, looking around his apartment before quirking a little smile. “Actually, that’s kind of part of the reason why I called,” Dean went on.

“Oh?” Anna replied simply.

“Yeah, I’m, uh, well, I’m looking for a new roommate. Do you remember Benny?” 

“Yeah, you guys moved to an apartment junior year, right?” she asked. 

“Points for remembering that,” Dean teased, and Anna laughed a little on the other end.

“Hey, what can I say, I have a good memory,” she told Dean. 

“Yeah, well, Benny just moved out, he moved in with his girlfriend,” Dean explained.

“Andrea?” Anna inquired. Dean nodded.

“Yup,” he sighed.

“Aw, good for them,” Anna said happily.

“Yeah, I know, right?” Dean replied with a faint smile.

“So you need a roommate now?” Anna began. Dean grinned and gave a nod of his head.

“Exactly. I just need someone to split the rent with. If I had enough money I would pay for it on my own, but I’m just short. And it’s not like I’m moving out, that’d be way too much work. So, I’m trying to find a roommate by the end of this month. I’m calling a bunch of old friends, but I’m not having too much luck,” Dean sighed.

“How high is the rent?” Anna inquired almost cautiously.

“Not too high,” Dean replied. “The apartment is small and it’s on the edge of the city. It’s a nice place, really, has a nice view and everything. Little worn down and all, plus there are some stairs, but overall it’s pretty ideal,” Dean went on to explain. There was a short pause on the line, enough to give Dean some hope that maybe, just maybe Anna was thinking that it was possible.

“Dean, I think you may possibly be in luck,” Anna informed Dean who practically breathed a sigh of relief.

“You mean you’d be willing to look into it?” Dean questioned hopefully.

“Well, not me, but I know someone who’s looking for a place and who’s short on money too so he probably wouldn’t complain if he had to room with someone,” Anna explained. Dean paused.

“Who is it?”

“Do you remember Cas?” Anna questioned. Dean blinked and thought for a moment, the name ringing a few bells before finally some vague memories came back to Dean.

“Your step-brother?” Dean inquired. 

“Yeah,” Anna replied simply. It came back to Dean then.

Castiel Novak was Anna’s step-brother who had gone to the same college as her, therefore the same college as Dean. Him and Dean were actually in the same year, too, and they had hung out a few times, though, usually when they hung out it was in a group since they also shared some mutual friends.

Dean remembered always thinking of Cas as sort of an enigma. He was very handsome, great bone structure, blue eyes, dark hair that was always messy. He had an interesting set of social skills, however. Him and Dean always got along, but Dean remembered thinking that he wasn’t really best friend sort of material, not like Benny, since Cas was a little bit more of a nerd. Cas never liked to party and he wasn’t very interested in social gatherings. He was always reading obscure material and majored in Environmental Sciences of all random things. And, for some reason, he had this weird thing about bees and a strange habit of watching the ducks swim at the little pond that was on campus.

And he was an omega.

“Cas came back to live at home after college, but he’s getting sick of it. He’s looking for a place to live, but he doesn’t have a ton of money. He writes articles for a science journal online so the whole moving a little ways away wouldn’t be a big thing, which, he would be having to move a little farther since you said you’re on the edge of the city, right?” Anna went on. Dean swallowed and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m, uh, right on the edge,” he told her, trying to not sound a little worried.

“Well, if you want I can text you his phone and his email and you can try and get in touch with him. I’m sure he remembers you, he’s got one hell of a memory,” Anna huffed. Dean licked his lips and held back a sigh.

“Yeah, that would be really, really great,” Dean told Anna.

“Great,” Anna chirped. “I’ll get right on that for you.”

“Thank you,” Dean replied simply.

“It’s no problem. And hey, give me a call again sometime soon, maybe we can meet up and chat or something, do some catching up,” Anna suggested.

“Yeah, we should definitely do that,” Dean agreed, though he wasn’t sure just how that would work out.

“Awesome. It was great talking to you, Dean. And I hope everything with Cas works out alright,” she went on.

“Yeah, I hope it does too,” Dean replied, trying to smile as Anna bid him a goodbye and he bid one back before hanging up the phone.

The only thing Dean could think of as he placed his phone back down on the table was that one little detail, that one hang up that he had been talking to Benny about.

Cas was an omega.

It wasn’t just that, however, it was that Dean didn’t know Cas one hundred percent. They had been friends, sure, but that didn’t mean they were going to make good roommates. And on top of that, what if Cas’ personality became an issue? That strange, antisocial aura could possibly infest the house and throw Dean off his game, right?

Dean leaned forwards, elbows on the table as he rubbed at his eyes. There was still a list of people to call, possibilities, but Dean wasn’t so sure that any of those would be as simple and clear cut as Cas’ situation. Cas could probably split rent, had no problem moving, wasn’t a stranger. That offered a lot more than the idea of some random person answering a Craigslist ad. 

But, just because Cas was looking for a place didn’t necessarily mean that he would actually take the offer. For all Dean knew, maybe Cas remembered Dean as a weirdo and would be avoidant to move in with him. Maybe Dean was the issue and not Cas.

Or maybe Dean’s fears were the real issue.

\---

Dean honestly didn’t know how to go about contacting Cas at first. Anna texted him Cas’ phone number and his email, but Dean felt like texting Cas would be too informal, calling him would be awkward, and emailing him would just be weird.

Finally, however, after much internal contemplation, Dean got up the guts to give Cas a call over the weekend, knowing that the clock was ticking down to when Dean’s rent was due, the rent that he needed help to pay. Thus the roommate scenario. Thus calling Cas and being nervous for some strange, unknown reason. Thus Cas picking up the phone and answering with a ‘Hello?’ that came out in that unusually low voice that Dean remembered clearly.

“Hey, Cas, it’s Dean, Dean Winchester. We, uh, we went to college together, remember?” Dean began, trying to relax into the couch a little, trying to ease his nerves.

There was a barely there pause before Cas was replying.

“Oh, hello, Dean,” Cas replied simply, sounding almost surprised. “I didn’t think I’d hear from you after we graduated.”

Yup, always straightforward, definitely Cas.

Dean smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, uh, surprise then, I guess,” Dean replied lamely.

“A surprise it is,” Cas sighed into the phone. “I suppose you have an interesting reason for calling,” Cas went on. Dean frowned.

“What makes you say that?”

“No one calls after college just to catch up unless they were very close,” Cas told Dean. Dean let out a breath and shook his head.

“Alright, you got me there,” Dean huffed. “I, uh, I’m calling because Anna gave me your number. She said that you were looking for a place and, well, Benny just moved out and I kind of need someone to split the rent with so…” Dean trailed off.

“You’re looking for a roommate?” 

“Yes.”

“And you called me?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

There was a short pause of silence and the next time Cas spoke, Dean could detect a hint of a smile in his tone.

“Nothing,” he replied simply. “I’ll be honest, moving in with someone I’ve known and splitting the rent is an ideal situation,” Cas told Dean who felt hope flare in his chest. “Though, I haven’t seen you in awhile and I’d need a lot more detail about the place and the rent,” Cas went on.

“Well, you’re welcome to come over if you wanna check it out. We could do some catching up too, I guess,” Dean added on.

“That sounds alright,” Cas replied and Dean felt that hope in his chest grow. If he cleaned up the place, neated up the kitchen and the living room, vacuumed, the place would look pretty nice.

“Cool. When are you free?” Dean inquired.

“Well, I’m free tomorrow, but I understand that you may want some time,” Cas reasoned. 

“Well, that’s actually alright, I, um, I kind of need a roommate as fast as possible, rent is due this month and I can’t quite cover it so,” Dean told Cas sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So, what happens if this doesn’t work out?” Cas questioned, sounding amused. Dean blinked.

“I guess I’m screwed then,” Dean huffed, trying to make it a joke though it came out a lot more serious than it was supposed to.

“Well, I’m sure that we can work something out,” was Cas’ simple response that Dean had a feeling was said with one of those little Cas smiles that Dean could still remember.

“I hope so.”

\---

Dean emailed Cas information that night on the address of the house and what time he should come over, plus some basic stuff that they would probably need to talk about in person like how much the rent was and what Dean really couldn’t stand to have in the house or some of his quirks that would possibly be deal breakers. Dean found, however, that when the next day arrived and Cas arrived at his door with a soft smile and a ‘Hello, Dean’, that some deal breakers could, well, possibly be broken.

Cas had seemingly changed a bit since college. He looked a little more mature, even though during college he was probably the most mature student on campus. His eyes were a little softer, but they were also seemingly brighter. Conversation between him and Dean flowed a little more easily than Dean had remembered, and Cas had a few smiles to offer throughout Dean showing him around the apartment and then sitting down at the kitchen table with him. Things, overall, weren’t as awkward as Dean had suspected they were going to be.

“So, how often do you clean?” Cas inquired after a little talk about the rent amount and how Dean managed to deposit the separate checks. Dean grew a guilty sort of look, smiling sheepishly.

“Well, I’m not really into cleaning, Benny was a neat freak so he was usually the one to keep stuff in check,” Dean explained. Cas nodded but didn’t reply, and Dean raised an eyebrow. “Why, is that, like, a deciding factor?”

Cas shook his head.

“No, I was just wondering. I’m a fairly clean person myself, and I don’t mind doing a little general cleaning,” he explained. Dean nodded.

“So, I know that I laid out what I really can’t stand, is there anything you really won’t be able to deal with?” Dean inquired cautiously. He almost didn’t want to hear the answer. Him and Cas were getting along so well so far, and Cas was already okay with the rent price. It was seemingly the details they were gathering at the moment.

“Well, I think you should know that I’m very much a night owl and not much of a morning person. Like I told you, I work for writing for an online journal, therefore a lot of my writing I tend to do at night and occasionally very late at night. That brings me to the other fact of, I won’t be leaving the apartment often. I’d be more than happy to run out for groceries or errands, but if I have a project due, I will usually work from home. Occasionally, I will go out to a library or coffee shop, what have you, but it’s easier usually to just stay at home,” Cas explained. Dean simply nodded. That didn’t sound like an issue to him. Dean worked as a mechanic down at a garage near the city so he was usually out of the house. Him and Cas probably wouldn’t have issues with that.

“That’s fine with me, man,” Dean replied, and Cas quirked a little smile.

“Good.”

“Is there anything else you really want to discuss?” Dean questioned slowly. Cas raised an eyebrow.

“Possibly we should address the elephant in the room,” Cas suggested. Dean paused and blinked, trying to search for what it was that Cas would possibly be identifying as an elephant in the room. Then, it hit him.

He had completely forgot since, when Cas was at the door, when Cas came into the house, Dean didn’t really smell anything. Thinking about it, however, if Dean took a deep breath, he could smell the smell of-

“I’m an omega.”

Cas paused.

“And you’re an alpha.”

Dean paused.

“Yes,” Dean finally replied dumbly.

“Neither of us are mated,” Cas supplied helpfully. 

“Yes,” Dean repeated. Cas’ little smile grew a bit more.

“Does it bother you that I’m an omega?” Cas inquired. Dean swallowed thickly.

“No,” he said, a statement that was half a truth and half a lie. Cas took a deep breath.

“I’m on heat suppressants so I don’t get a monthly heat like some omegas. The suppressants usually do a fairly good job of covering my smell so if you go anywhere you probably won’t smell like you’ve been with an omega, though some people may assume that you live with one,” Cas continued on.

“None of that bothers me,” Dean told Cas almost quietly. “But does, y’know, living with an alpha bother you?” Dean inquired. The last thing he wanted to do was to make Cas feel uncomfortable.

“It doesn’t bother me, no.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Cas’ voice was so confident and calm that it made Dean swallow thickly.

“Okay then,” Dean sighed.

“You sound nervous.”

Cas was always way too good at reading people and Dean cursed him in that moment.

“I just,” Dean began, trying to make eye contact with Cas after having avoided it. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Why would you make me uncomfortable?”

Dean tried to read Cas, but Cas was way too hard to read sometimes. His head was tilted to the side like he didn’t understand, but his eyes said differently.

“Sometimes, y’know, instinct and biology rule us and sometimes alphas take advantage of omegas. You hear it all the time on the news. I just don’t want you to think that I would ever,” Dean began, stopping himself with a sigh to look up and directly into Cas’ eyes. They were very blue. 

They were also very understanding.

“I don’t want you to think that I would ever hurt you,” Dean told Cas, keeping his voice steady.

“I wouldn’t agree to be your roommate if I believed you would hurt me.”

Dean blinked, then blinked again.

“Wait, you… you’ll be my roommate? You’ll move in?” Dean questioned, hope starting to grow into joy as he watched Cas quirk another small smile.

“As long as you’d still like me to,” Cas replied. “And I know that you need this month’s rent. I may not be able to fully move in this month, but I will be able to give you half of this month’s rent,” Cas told Dean who grew a wide grin.

“Dude, thank you,” Dean began, feeling relief wash over him. “Thank you so much,” Dean went on. Cas gave a little nod of his head.

“It’s no problem. I’m excited to see what living with you will be like,” Cas replied softly. Dean’s heart jumped as he took a breath and nodded.

He was pretty sure that he was feeling the same way.

\---

It turned out that living with Cas, at least initially, was fairly easy. Dean helped Cas move in which, thankfully, wasn’t too much of a pain due to the fact that Cas didn’t have a ton of stuff. Dean helped him unpack some things and they talked over that. There were certain trophies or trinkets that Dean found in helping Cas unpack boxes that he asked Cas about and found that they had meaning. Dean learned that Cas used to be very into spelling bees when he was a kid. Cas explained that the “bee” part of spelling bee was what had given him interest into bees themselves and their lives.

Dean found that Cas was actually very active in extra curriculars for a long while. He took swimming too, ended up being captain of the swim team his senior year of high school. He also ran track and field, something that Dean remembered he had continued during college. 

“My parents pushed me a lot during my childhood,” Cas explained as he set some things up on one of the shelves in his room. “They were both overachievers and obviously wanted to pass the trait down to the family,” Cas continued to explain to Dean who was helping Cas unpack one of the last boxes left.

“Yeah, but didn’t you have like a ton of siblings?” Dean inquired. Cas turned and looked over at him with a little knowing grin and a nod.

“My parents had a handful of children. And, like Anna, some of them were step siblings. But the step siblings were treated just as the regular siblings were. However, certain siblings didn’t get along. My brothers Michael and Gabriel were constantly fighting. It didn’t help that they were both alphas. It actually didn’t help that most of the boys were alphas. I was the only male omega,” Cas explained, setting an interesting looking little snow globe on his shelf. Dean frowned a little. 

Dean knew that families could be tough when it came to whether their child or children were betas, omegas, or alphas. Dean, himself, had things fairly easy. Since his Mom was a beta and his Dad was an alpha, there was no fuss when the first child, Dean himself, came out as an alpha, and the second child, Sam, came out as a beta. It was a content family, Dean had to admit that he must have had it a lot easier than Cas.

“Did they, y’know, give you shit for it?” Dean questioned almost cautiously, knowing that it could be a touchy subject. Cas looked over at Dean with a sly grin.

“Of course they did. They wouldn’t be sane if they didn’t,” Cas told Dean, turning back to shift the snow globe around. 

“Well, I’d argue that a sane parent wouldn’t discriminate their children.”

“You were the one in my Socio Economics class that always got down to the root of the ‘we’re a slave to biology’, weren’t you?”

Dean blinked. He remembered sharing that class with Benny, but he had no memory of Cas being in that class.

“You took that class?” Dean inquired.

“I took most of your classes,” Cas informed Dean nonchalantly, pulling out a rather large seashell (of all things) from the box on the floor next to his feet. “You just didn’t notice me in most of them. I didn’t talk much, and if I did, I bored most everyone.” 

“Oh,” Dean simply replied, sitting in a moment of silence.

“But, yes, they tried to make up for me being an omega by thrusting me into the sorts of places where omegas supposedly belonged. Like spelling bees. Apparently omegas spell better than alphas,” Cas joked dryly, earning a little huff of laughter from Dean.

“You did sports though, swimming and running,” Dean pointed out.

“Only because I convinced them to let me. They were very adamant, thought that I would be left in the dust and just embarrass myself by trying to, God forbid, out run the strong, fast alphas at school.”

“Obviously, you had the ability to though,” Dean replied, pulling the last thing out of the box next to him, a trophy from junior year of high school that claimed first place for sprints. Cas looked over and smirked a little before turning away.

“I’m a determined person. I was determined to prove a point to them,” Cas told Dean as he turned back and walked over to Dean, taking the trophy from his hands.

“Good for you, honestly,” Dean sighed, standing up next to Cas. “Football was the only thing I really did in high school. When college came around, I kind of dropped extra curriculars. I wanted to focus on school, even though I didn’t do the best job,” Dean added on almost sheepishly.

“What do you mean?” Cas questioned, a little frown between his brows as he walked over and set the trophy on the last space on the shelf.

“Well, I was always alright at school, never had any issues, but if I wanted to nail like, straight A’s, I would have to really focus. And once I got into college and there were so many people, so many things, parties and outings and shit, I got kinda distracted and my grades slipped here and there. My parents obviously weren’t pissed or anything, but part of that, I think, at least, was because I was the first born and I was an alpha and I was kind of favored to do better. Even though that ended up being a total bust because my younger brother ended up getting into Stanford law and meeting this really pretty beta while he was there,” Dean huffed.

“Oh, right, wasn’t his name Sam?” Cas inquired, leaning his hip against his desk and crossing his arms.

“Yup. Four years younger but undoubtedly smarter. He’s the brains of the family,” Dean sighed, thinking in the back of his mind that he really should give Sam a call, see how things were going for him.

“Well, that doesn’t make you any less,” Cas shrugged simply. Dean smiled a little and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re sure about that?” Dean questioned

“You were the family’s first born alpha, I’m sure there wasn’t a lot you could do to disgrace your family,” Cas argued.

“Well, I guess you kind of have a point,” Dean sighed, looking around Cas’ room. He could only imagine being in Cas’ shoes, being the only male omega in a large family. It must have been a nightmare.

“I wouldn’t change much about my life though,” Cas began as though he had some sixth sense and could read Dean’s mind. “I think my family simply being able to accept me was enough. I could have been kicked out, or even worse.”

“Yeah, there are some terrible stories about omegas out there,” Dean huffed, shaking his head. Cas sighed and turned to rearrange some things on his desk.

“Thankfully, I’m not involved in any of them,” he replied. “Though I’ve taken part in a lot of programs to try and stop those stories from continuing,” Cas explained.

“Oh?” Dean simply replied with a raised eyebrow.

“There are tons of alliances out there for omegas and I took part in a lot of them once I got into college. I don’t think my parents would have necessarily supported me if I decided to take part in them during high school, so that’s why I got involved during college,” Cas went on.

“That’s great,” Dean replied, smiling a little. He had heard of groups that tried to stand up for omegas, and he had always thought that they were a good start in trying to spread equality. Lord only knew how messed up society could be when it came to what you had presented as.

“I’ve fallen out of attending meetings, but I still donate what I can,” Cas informed Dean as he continued to straighten out his desk until he deemed it neat enough. Once he had, Dean watched him as he walked over to beside the bed where one last small box was sitting.

“That really is great, man,” Dean said, still smiling softly. It honestly didn’t surprise him all too much that Cas was the kind of person to donate to a cause like that. After living with him for a few days, Dean found that he was one of the few people Dean had met that was very kind and respective. 

“Yeah,” Cas sighed in reply, leaning over and opening up the box. “Honestly, finding a place took me as long as it did, well, because not a lot of places were offering omegas rooms. I called a few places that refused me almost right away,” Cas explained. Dean frowned. 

“That sucks,” was all that Dean could manage to say. Realistically, it didn’t just suck, it was discrimination plain and clear and it wasn’t fair. Which, when he thought about, made Dean feel almost guilty when he remembered his initial feelings towards having an omega roommate. 

“I can’t thank you enough, really, for letting me room with you. Not many alphas are willing to let an omega live with them,” Cas then added on somewhat shyly. Dean swallowed thickly before trying for a smile that wouldn’t look nervous. 

“I’m not,” Dean began, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not like other alphas.”

Cas looked over at him with an amused look and Dean cringed when he realized how that came out. 

“Shit, I mean, I’m not, I don’t,” Dean started, but Cas straightened up and shook his head with a soft smile. 

“It’s alright, I know what you mean. I agree honestly. You’re kind and you don’t make any comments about it. You’re letting me live with you. You’re a good guy, Dean,” Cas informed Dean who fought the heat rising to his cheeks. 

“Thanks, Cas,” Dean replied simply, looking over at Cas. Cas gave a little nod before he went back to taking a few things out of the box by his bed. 

“You’re welcome,” was the simple reply given that made Dean wonder if maybe, just maybe, things would really work out. And maybe Dean would have another friend like Benny.

\---

The next few days of Dean living with Cas went off without a hitch. Dean had taken a few days off of work to help Cas move in, but when he went back to work, it was apparent that his schedule wouldn’t conflict with Cas’. Dean got up fairly early, even though he wasn’t the best morning person, and did what he would usually do before work, grab something to eat, make some coffee. He was generally quiet in his morning routine which worked since Cas was still asleep, or, at least Dean figured he was since his door was closed and it was obvious that the kitchen hadn’t been touched yet.

Dean found that Cas really was a night owl, when Dean went to bed he could occasionally hear Cas a room over coughing or typing or something or other. It didn’t bother him, thankfully, Cas was seemingly a very quiet person.

The only thing that seemingly needed to be discussed off the bat, however, was food. Thankfully, that conversation was easy. Dean remembered that with Benny, they always argued over food and groceries since they both had rather large appetites and shared the same taste in food. Cas had explained to Dean that he was perfectly alright with talking over groceries and making lists with Dean instead of going to the store and buying random crap.

Cas was seemingly a very efficient person.

And seemingly, a very ideal roommate.

Dean was, admittedly, a little worried about if Cas’ scent would start to become more apparent over time living in the same house, but apparently the suppressants for his heat did do a good job of covering up his smell. Dean could smell that he was an omega, but he couldn’t smell that true scent that alphas and omegas had. Everyone was born with one, and it always smelled different to each person, but Dean had no idea what Cas’ true scent was like. All he could smell, even if he was in the doorway to Cas’ room, was the clean, classic smell of an omega. It was simple. And it didn’t cause Dean any trouble.

By the end of week two of having Cas live with Dean, Dean remembered that he hadn’t even called Benny and told him exactly what was going on. So, on a night where Dean was home from work and Cas was at the store (Dean and Cas had agreed that they would split the amount of grocery trips taken so that neither of them felt like they were picking up too much slack) Dean decided to plop down on the couch and give Benny a call.

“Hello?” Benny answered a few rings in.

“Hey, Benny, it’s Dean,” Dean replied simply, wiggling around and getting cozy on the couch. He wasn’t so sure how Benny would take the news of Cas coming to room with Dean, but he was definitely very interested to see.

“Dean,” Benny began, already sounding more upbeat. “Haven’t heard from you in weeks. You disappear or something?” Benny questioned. Dean grinned and shook his head.

“Nah. But, guess who got a new roommate?” 

“You already got one?” Benny inquired, sounding almost surprised. “What devil did you have to make a deal with to find one that fast? What’s the catch?” 

“There’s no catch, Benny,” Dean informed Benny, though, in the back of his mind, he thought that possibly the catch was that his roommate was now an omega.

“Well, who is it? What are they like?” Benny inquired. Dean smirked.

“Alright, you remember back in college, that Novak kid? Castiel? He had Socio Economics with us,” Dean began. There was a pause on the line.

“Yeah, vaguely, why?”

There was another short pause before Benny spoke again.

“Don’t tell me your new roommate is Castiel Novak,” Benny began, sounding almost cautious but more amused than anything else.

“Yup. Cas is my new roommate,” Dean told Benny almost proudly.

“Wasn’t he a little weird though? He always seemed off to me,” Benny mused on the other line. Dean simply shrugged.

“He’s not so weird anymore. He’s been here about two weeks, I helped him move in and all. He’s quiet, keeps to himself but we get along. We don’t really see a ton of each other since he’s a nighttime kinda person and I have work during the day, but he keeps the house pretty clean. Stays in his room a fair amount,” Dean added on. It was true, Cas spent a lot of time in his room, but Dean didn’t really complain. If Cas wanted space, Dean was happy to give it to him. As long as the two of them could coexist peacefully, Dean figured he’d be fine.

“Hold on,” Benny began, adding a dramatic pause that left Dean blinking. “Isn’t he… he’s an omega,” Benny stated. He paused once more. “Don’t tell me that after you ranting about how living with an omega wouldn’t work, you actually brought an omega into the apartment to live with you.”

“That’s exactly what I did.”

“I can’t believe you, Dean,” Benny sighed. 

“Hey, no, I gotta hand it to you on this one. Y’know, it started because I called up Anna Milton, and she’s Cas’ step-sister. She told me Cas was looking for a place so I called him up and talked with him, had him come over here and everything. We even talked about the whole, ‘I’m an alpha, he’s an omega’ thing. He’s on suppressants so he doesn’t get his monthly heat and the suppressants cover up his smell so there’s no issues there. It’s flawless, really,” Dean told Benny happily, melting into the couch a little more.

“So, when he has an alpha over for whatever reason, whether it be a one night stand or just a friend, you’re telling me that there’s no way you’re gonna get possessive or protective or territorial,” Benny began, once again sounding somewhat amused. Dean blinked.

“No, why would I?”

Benny huffed a breath of laughter.

“You’re the one who thought it wouldn’t work out because of biology, didn’t you ever think through the little details? Alphas get naturally possessive of their omegas.”

“He’s not _my omega_ , Benny, fuck’s sake,” Dean huffed, shaking his head. “And I thought you were the one who was jumping up and down ready for me to room with an omega,” Dean went on.

“Okay, I gotta admit that I just didn’t think you’d actually end up rooming with an omega,” Benny admitted.

“So, what, now you take back what you said?” Dean questioned.

“No, not necessarily. Look, I’m just playing devil’s advocate over here, I’m not saying that anything bad will happen or that anything will go wrong. I’m just saying, you are living with an omega.”

“And?” Dean began. Benny sighed.

“Look, I’m happy for you, okay, and I think that everything will go smoothly. I just think it’s a little odd having Castiel Novak as your new roommate. Didn’t you barely know him?”

“I knew him a little,” Dean sighed. “We had some mutual friends and we hung out every once in awhile. We were just never close, it was never anything like you and me,” Dean explained.

“You guys friendly with each other now?” Benny asked. Dean shrugged.

“Yeah, we’re friendly. But, like I said, we don’t see each other a ton. He writes for a science journal online so I guess he probably spends a lot of time writing about science-y shit in his room. Which, is none of my business, actually,” Dean then promptly added on.

“So, do you plan on befriending him? Replacing me and all?” Benny teased with a grin. Dean rolled his eyes.

“Nobody’s gonna replace you, Benny, you’re my best friend and you have been for years. But, honestly, I think I’m just gonna see where things go. I mean, we’re living together happily and in our respective spaces now, what if I like, try to talk to him and coax him out of his room and find out some weird shit about him. Y’know, sometimes less is more.”

“That don’t make any sense Dean.”

Dean rolled his eyes again.

“I mean, like, what we know about each other now might be enough. If I start to really befriend him, I might learn that he’s like, into cults or whatever. Then, do you think I’ll want him living in the same apartment I sleep in?” Dean questioned.

“Yeah, but if you don’t befriend him and you only exist by his side, you might only learn he’s into cults when he invites a group of hooded people over,” Benny argued.

“Firstly, no, secondly, I don’t think he’s actually into cults,” Dean argued back.

“Well, maybe not cults but maybe something else freaky. How much of a background check did you do on him anyways?” Benny inquired.

“Well, I knew him from college and I figured he wasn’t wanted for any felonies so it’s not like I went to the police station and requested a background check. Listen, he’s cool, alright, I talked to him a fair amount and we’ve been living in the same space for two weeks, it’s fine,” Dean insisted. 

There was a pause.

“So, are you gonna try and be his friend or not then?” Benny questioned, and Dean huffed a breath.

“I’m sure that, over time, we’ll get to know each other more, how’s that? I’m not gonna sit him down at the kitchen table and ask him to tell me his life’s story, but as the days progress, maybe I’ll invite him to come watch a movie in the living room or some shit,” Dean supposed, looking over at the TV across from the couch, one of the only nice things in the apartment, only there because Dean and Benny had pooled savings into getting it so they didn’t have to live with the shitty TV that had come with the place.

“Well, I guess I can’t argue with that,” Benny sighed in reply. 

“Exactly, thank you,” Dean replied with a nod.

“I am glad that you found a roommate though. He splitting the rent with you?” 

“Yup, he already gave me the first month,” Dean told Benny.

“Well, that’s good,” Benny replied.

“How are things going with Andrea?” Dean questioned, figuring that he had had enough talk about his life and the new installation of Cas.

“They’re going pretty well, actually. It’s nice that I’ve stayed with her before so I kinda know what to expect from her,” Benny explained. Dean nodded. “Still a little weird not having you here though,” Benny informed Dean who smiled a little.

“Yeah, things are weird around here without you,” he admitted. 

“Well, we’ll see each other soon. Maybe I can come over and see Cas. You think he remembers me?” 

“I don’t doubt it,” Dean sighed. “Dude’s got the most solid memory,” Dean told Benny.

“Huh. Freaky.”

“He’s not freaky, he’s just, well, I guess he’s a little quirky,” Dean replied, thinking over the things he had helped Cas unpack. And in reality, it was true, Cas was a little quirky, just not the kind of quirky Dean could really be bothered to mind.

Dean and Benny went on to talk for a fair amount of time, something that didn’t surprise Dean since they could talk for hours if they hadn’t talked in awhile, which, two weeks was a good amount of time.

They finally bid their goodbyes, however, and Dean was spared some time before Cas came in the door with groceries, grumbling about how he was _definitely_ not used to walking up multiple flights of stairs.

Dean offered to help him unpack the groceries but Cas insisted that he put them away, so Dean let him be, feeling a little strange just sitting on the couch whilst Cas put things away, but deciding to not be bothered by it seeing as how relaxed Cas was, how he was actually humming a little as he put things in cabinets and into the fridge. Dean also had the mind to think that maybe it was a little freaky to just… watch your roommate put away groceries. But, there was something about Cas. There was something that made Dean think that maybe he should work a little on the befriending Cas department. 

Cas was quiet, but Dean was starting to believe that there was more to him than just a reserved and quiet facade. Maybe there was a really good friend there, waiting for Dean.

Dean figured that he would just have to find out for himself.

\---

The first opportunity for Dean to possibly make headway on the friendship front came fairly soon after Dean had talked to Benny. It was about a week later when Dean was getting up early at his usual time to go to work. And, usually, when he got up, Cas was asleep a few rooms over in his own bedroom. But that day, when Dean came into the kitchen, Cas was sitting at the kitchen table in his pajamas, wrapped up in a blanket, staring down what looked like a seemingly empty document with a blinking cursor.

“Good… morning,” Dean greeted slowly and almost cautiously as he rounded the table and glanced down at Cas. 

“Morning,” Cas simply replied, his voice rough. 

“You’re up early for once,” Dean mused as he put the kettle on the stove in his usual routine of making coffee. Cas looked over at him with a knowing sort of look. 

“I’m not up early, I never went to bed,” Cas informed Dean who raised an eyebrow. 

“Why?” Dean simply inquired, leaning his hip against the counter. 

“Writer’s block,” Cas simply sighed as though that explained everything. 

“Oh, you write for a science journal, right?” Dean questioned.

“Well, kind of. It’s not an actual scientific journal with all the reports and research, it’s more of something that started out as something fun and bloomed into somewhat of a business. It’s sort of like an online magazine rather than a journal. I bet Anna told you that it was a science journal, didn’t she?” Cas then inquired, looking somewhat amused but also very tired.

“Yeah, she, uh, she told me when I was calling looking around for a roommate,” Dean explained.

“Yeah, Anna likes to hype it up, but really it’s a lot more casual.” Cas rubbed a hand over his forehead and yawned a bit. “The guy who owns it, Chuck, he’s the one who started it back in college, then managed to gather some friends to keep it going. It started off non-profit, but when people started showing more interest in it, Chuck decided he’d make sure to keep people around by starting to hand out something of a salary. So now, it’s my income. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough.”

“Are you happy?”

Cas paused, furrow in his brow before responding.

“Yes.”

Dean smiled a little with a nod.

“Then that’s all that matters,” he told Cas as he turned to open up the cabinets in search of coffee grounds and a filter. 

“And what about you? Are you happy with what you do?” Cas questioned from behind Dean who was pouring some scoops of coffee into the filter.

“I guess so, yeah,” Dean replied, not thinking it over too much. 

“You don’t sound very convincing.”

Dean turned to find Cas with his head tilted in that Cas way, his elbows on the table as he leaned forwards and looked over at Dean with interested eyes. Dean took a second to think that those tired eyes could probably read him like a book without even trying too hard.

“Well, I mean, I’ve been working on cars since I was a little kid. Used to work at my Dad’s friend Bobby’s garage. That was where I spent a ton of time in high school,” Dean told Cas as he went and grabbed a cup from another cabinet. He was starting to wish that he had gotten up earlier just so he could sit down with Cas and a cup of coffee and talk, but he knew he’d be late for work if he was to do so.

“So, you’re a mechanic?” Cas inquired. Dean nodded.

“I work down at a garage on the edge of the city.” Dean paused. “Did you only just find that out?” he went on, suddenly alarmed that Cas maybe didn’t even know what he did for a living.

“Well, I knew you did something for work during the day and I had a feeling it had to do with cars.”

Dean blinked and opened his mouth before Cas read his mind for, well, Dean didn’t even know what time.

“It was a hunch. I go on a lot of hunches. Blessed with good instincts I guess,” Cas told him with a shrug. Dean huffed a breath of laughter before turning to the boiling kettle.

“So, you would have lived with me for how long before you wanted to know what I did for a living? You know, I could be in the mafia for all you know,” Dean told Cas as he poured the water into the filter and heard the coffee begin to drip into the cup.

“Well, we’ve been living together for, what, almost a month and no harm has been done,” Cas pointed out.

“What if I was plotting something evil though?”

“I guess I would have failed my naturally good instincts then,” Cas sighed simply, gaining a huff of laughter from Dean.

“You’re allowed to, y’know, talk to me and everything. I know we’re roommates, but, I mean, we can be friends too,” Dean told Cas almost shyly.

“I know,” Cas replied quietly, eyeing Dean’s actions as he continued to pour fresh coffee into his cup. “I was never all too good with making friends. You saw me back in college. I had a reputation as a weirdo,” Cas informed Dean who frowned, setting the kettle aside and putting the coffee filter in the sink.

“That was college. You’re different now,” Dean shrugged simply. Cas smiled one of those sly, small little barely there smiles that Dean had a fondness for.

“One could argue that people don’t change all too much.”

“One could also argue that people change everyday,” Dean argued. Cas raised an eyebrow.

“So, when Anna told you that I was looking for a place, and you remembered that you had gone to college with me, what did you think?” Cas inquired. Dean swallowed and shook his head.

“I thought it’d be cool to see you again at least and see what you were up to,” Dean said, something that was truthful enough that he could let it slip. He was just leaving out the initial panic he had also felt when he had received the news from Anna.

Cas seemed to read this too, in his freaky sixth sense way, as he raised an eyebrow and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms.

“Really?”

Dean swallowed again.

“What did you think when Dean Winchester called you up and asked if you wanted to come live with him?”

That gained a smile from Cas, one of those contagious smiles that made Dean’s heart warm.

“I thought that I must be dreaming because there’s no way that the Dean Winchester wants to share an apartment with me,” Cas told Dean who raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“You were in the popular crowd in college. You were always going out and doing stuff, you had great friends, you still managed to do fairly well grades wise from what I’ve gathered. But, we didn’t know each other too much.”

“Maybe we should start to know each other more now,” Dean suggested slowly. He didn’t want to make it seem like he was coming onto Cas or anything like that in the slightest. All he wanted to do, honestly, was just try and make more of a friend out of Cas that just a coexistent roommate.

Cas seemed like he had possibly good friend material in him.

Cas’ head gave another tilt, this time tilting to the left as he looked Dean over with a small, content little smile.

“And what drives you to want us to become friends?” Cas questioned, sounding honestly more curious than anything else. Dean shrugged.

“I don’t know, man. You seem like a cool guy. And, well, Benny was the last one living here and he and I are like best friends. So, it was kinda fun to like, live with your best friend,” Dean explained.

“Well, our schedules don’t particularly allow us a lot of time to really hang out I guess you could say,” Cas supposed.

“Well, the weekend is coming up, maybe we could do something then. Like order a pizza and watch a movie or something,” Dean shrugged, turning back to the counter in search of breakfast. 

“Did you buy fruit loops by the way?” Dean questioned, a complete non-sequitur but a question nonetheless.

“On top of the fridge,” was Cas’ simple reply as his eyes went back to focusing on his laptop.

“So, yeah, we could do like a trial to see if you can stand me as a friend,” Dean suggested as he reached up to grab the box of fruit loops.

“I’m pretty sure I can stand you as a friend, Dean,” Cas told Dean who immediately felt some sort of triumph.

“Alright, well, let me ask you this. This was the question that was a make or break for Benny and I becoming real friends,” Dean began as he grabbed a bowl from a cabinet.

“Oh?” Cas replied, sounding interested. He leaned forwards, elbows back on the table as Dean turned to look at him.

“Opinion on pineapple on pizza.”

Dean crossed his arms, fruit loops still in hand, eyebrows raised as though the question itself would end up in a war if Cas gave the wrong answer. Truthfully, Dean really wouldn’t care all too much, it wasn’t like he was about to kick Cas out. It would just make ordering pizza easier.

“Only one in my family that actually liked it,” Cas told Dean, his eyebrows raised right back as though he was purely amused just by how serious Dean was taking things. Dean nodded with a smile.

“We’re gonna be good friends.”

\---

True to his word, Dean made sure that Cas wasn’t doing anything Friday night and made sure that his own schedule was free. He sat down on the couch with Cas finding that ordering a pizza with Cas was literally the easiest thing since they were always on the same page toppings-wise. So, once they had two pizzas by their side and other various snacks and drinks, Dean came into the living room having grabbed as many DVDs as he could from his room, plopping them down on the couch to sit between him and Cas.

“For a fair amount of time after we got here, the comes-with-the-place TV was so shitty that the best thing, and pretty much only thing it could do, was play DVDs. So, Benny and I stocked up on DVDs,” Dean explained as he watched Cas begin to card through different DVD cases.

“I guess you really did stock up,” Cas mused, obviously taking in just how many different DVDs Dean had.

“Yeah, Benny and I had a whole movie night thing going on,” Dean told Cas, waving a hand as though to seem nonchalant. It was true, him and Benny used to make sure that one night a week they would sit down on their worn down couch and watch a movie that one of them had picked or both of them had agreed on. Dean just wasn’t telling Cas how he actually kinda missed that whole movie night with Benny.

“‘Silence Of The Lambs’?” Cas questioned, picking up the DVD and looking over at Dean with slight amusement. Dean raised an eyebrow.

“Bad or good?” Dean questioned. Cas shook his head with a little smile.

“Good. I liked it. Just haven’t watched it in awhile,” Cas sighed, setting the case back down atop some others.

“Me neither, honestly. Ever since we got the new TV we kinda started watching Netflix,” Dean told Cas. “I just wanted to, y’know, give you some extra options. Obviously we could still pick something on Netflix but I mean, if you _wanted_ to-”

“You have the entire Harry Potter box set?”

Dean paused and blinked before looking over at Cas who was looking at him with wide eyes.  
“Um, well.” Dean glanced down at the set of DVDs Cas had put together that were, in fact, all the Harry Potter movies. He was debating in his head if he should tell Cas that it was Benny’s idea (it wasn’t, it was Dean’s) as he thought over the fact that Cas was about to be incredulous in either a good way or a bad way. 

“Yes,” Dean finally answered. Cas shook his head and huffed a breath of laughter.

“That’s amazing.”

“In a good way I hope?” Dean ventured cautiously. Cas nodded.

“Good way. Definitely. The Harry Potter series was one of my favorite series when I was younger, but it stuck. I’m still a fan,” Cas replied. Dean breathed an internal sigh of relief as he nodded.

“I’ve only got a few actual box sets, a fair amount of those are just stragglers,” Dean went on to tell Cas. “I’ve got all the ‘Saw’ movies though,” Dean added as he watched Cas uncover the case that held the original ‘Saw’ movie.

“Horror fan?” Cas questioned without even looking up, just flipping the case over and reading the back.

“A little,” Dean replied with a shrug. “You?” Dean asked as he watched Cas set down the case.

“A little,” Cas said, repeating Dean’s words. Dean quirked a little smile.

“You got a favorite?” 

Cas paused, then picked up a case and held it up for Dean to see.

“This one,” he told Dean who eyed the cover of what was ‘The Shining’.

“That’s seriously your favorite?” Dean questioned, and Cas nodded.

“I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, and ‘The Shining’ was one of his books that I read and liked more than the others. I saw the movie and I think they did a good job with it. Jack Nicholson was a great choice to play Jack Torrance,” Cas went on.

“I liked it but I never read the book. I don’t know, the movie felt like it was a little boring,” Dean offered, and Cas shrugged.

“I think most Stephen King book based movies don’t feel as complete unless you’ve read the book. His books are interesting, but when adapted to film, I think the missing context of the original book can confuse. Have you ever seen ‘Children Of The Corn’?” Cas then inquired. Dean nodded and pointed to the pile of DVDs.

“I think it’s somewhere in there,” Dean told Cas.

“I saw it without having read the book and it felt weird. Once I read the book and watched it again, I felt like holes had been filled plot wise, little details kind of. I’m not saying you have to read the book though, there are plenty of movies I’ve loved based on books where I didn’t bother reading it,” Cas explained.

“So, you’re not one of those pretentious people that says you have to read the book to enjoy the movie?” Dean teased. Cas rolled his eyes.

“I know I probably sound like I am, but I promise you I’m not. Just my personal experience that Stephen King book based movies can be a little weird, reading the book can just help sometimes,” Cas shrugged. Dean nodded.

“Sounds fair,” Dean told Cas who was still picking and poking through all the different DVD cases.

“You have a really nice collection of movies here,” Cas mused quietly, and Dean smiled happily.

“Thank you,” he replied. “It took awhile to collect it,” he informed Cas.

“I bet,” Cas huffed. 

“Well, they’re all available. Your choice what we watch,” Dean said. Cas’ head poked up.  
“Really?”

“‘Course. I’m sure I’ll like whatever you pick anyways. If we can agree on what kind of pizza we want, I’m sure the movie won’t be a problem,” Dean reasoned. Cas smiled a little before going back to looking at all the different cases.  
After awhile it was decided that they would watch ‘Psycho’, a movie agreed to be a good classic by both Dean and Cas.  
They got through the movie with a little bit of talking, but not too much. Just the right amount, perhaps. Cas pointed out some things Dean didn’t know about the movie and Dean pointed out some things Cas didn’t know about the movie. Only half a pizza survived out of the two pizzas they had bought, but it wasn’t a bother since both Dean and Cas could agree that leftover pizza was definitely not an issue.

After the movie was over, after dinner was over, Dean found that it was easy to just sit and talk with Cas about random stuff really. They talked more about Cas’ job, they talked more about Dean’s job. They talked about everything really, and Dean found that the night had been almost as nice as one of his old movie nights with Benny.  
Dean found that he possibly, kind of wanted to make movie night a thing.

Dean found that, after a few more weeks, movie night becoming a thing was easier than he thought.

\---

After movie night became a thing, other things became things. Watching new episodes of Dean or Cas’ favorite show together on the couch became a thing. Nights where Dean cooked dinner for both of them became a thing. Nights where Cas cooked for both of them became a thing. And suddenly, those things washed over Dean and Cas to create somewhat of a hidden rhythm, a rhythm of two people who no longer just coexisted. Suddenly, yet somehow slowly at the same time, Dean would consider Cas a friend and Cas would consider Dean a friend.  
They talked more openly and got more in tune with each other’s schedules. They found out more about each other and things became easier, conversation flowed better. Of course, to Dean, things weren’t like they were with Benny, but that didn’t bother Dean so much. He was pretty sure that he would never grow as close a friend to anyone but Benny, even though, over time, Cas became a valid competitor.

Months into Dean and Cas being not only roommates but friends, Dean thought that things were going fairly well. It was only when Cas sat down with Dean one Saturday morning at the kitchen table claiming he had “news” that things took a little turn.  
Dean initially thought that it wouldn’t be anything big, he thought that sure, maybe it would be a little grim since Cas looked unusually serious, but Dean never expected Cas to say something as serious as,

“I have to stop taking my heat suppressants.”

Dean thought, right off the bat, that, okay, going off heat suppressants wasn’t too big of a deal so he simply nodded, taking it in. A lot of omegas took breaks from suppressants for a lot of different reasons, and that was totally fine - until Dean took a minute to think, really think and understand what exactly Cas going off suppressants meant.

“You do know what this means, right?” Cas inquired from where he sat across from Dean who hadn't said a word yet. Cas was probably, once more, reading Dean and Dean’s brain that was moving a little too slow, just understanding that-

“I’ll be going into heat once a month.”

Dean blinked, panic inside him flaring as he cleared his throat and nodded, looking over at Cas with a look that tried to convey calmness but probably only conveyed utter fear.

“I’m aware,” Dean replied. Cas blinked.

“And this… doesn’t bother you?”

Cas sounded almost intrigued. Dean took a breath and paused before leaning his elbows on the table.

“Why, uh, exactly, may I ask, do you have to stop taking them?” Dean questioned. Cas shot him an unamused look as he sighed.

“The brand I’m taking is being discontinued. And, yes, there are other brands out there that do the exact same thing but I’m very sensitive to medications and I’ve already tried a lot of those brands, all of them having given me bad side effects. It’s a matter now, of experimenting with which brands I can stand. Which, they’re aren’t a lot left and my insurance doesn’t cover them all.”

Dean blinked.

That didn’t really sound good.

“So, uh, how long are we talking before you find suppressants that’ll work?” Dean questioned. Cas sighed once more and rubbed a hand across his forehead.

“A few weeks to a few months.”

“Months?”

Dean didn’t mean to sound incredulous or perturbed by that, but he managed to sound very incredulous and very perturbed. Cas took a breath across from him and dropped eye contact.

“Listen, I know that this isn’t ideal, so I wanted to tell you that if you don’t think it’ll work and if you don’t want to have to live with an omega in heat every month, I can stay back at home until I get the whole suppressants thing worked out,” Cas explained, sounding almost… tired. Or maybe disappointed.

Dean thought that over for a moment, thought of how that would just be unfair, plain and simple if Dean just forced Cas to move back to his parents because his heats were going to start up again. That was, well, that’d basically be kicking Cas out. But could Dean work that out, could he manage to get by if Cas was going into heat in their tiny little apartment? It wasn’t like Dean was worried he would take advantage of Cas or anything like that, it was just, well, Dean knew how instincts took over when omegas went into heat or alphas went into rut. Dean had been horrified during his first rut, horrified how strong the urge to just knot an omega was. Of course, over the years he had gotten it somewhat into control, figured out how to manage it like most alphas. But with Cas? With Cas, the last thing he wanted to be doing was making him uncomfortable, making Cas feel like shit because he was trapped in an apartment with an alpha who could obviously smell him, an alpha who was only a few rooms away.

“Dean, I understand if you want me to take a break while I get my suppressants figured out. I promise you, I get it,” Cas told Dean, still looking down at the table instead of at Dean. 

“Cas, you’re my friend, and you’ve been a great friend to me for awhile now. I could never just kick you out,” Dean told Cas softly. 

“You wouldn’t be kicking me out, you’d have a valid reason,” Cas replied, finally looking up at Dean. Dean took a breath.

“Tell me how you feel about this. This isn’t about me, Cas, this is about how you feel. If you stayed here, would you be comfortable enough living in the same space as me?”

“Of course.”

Cas’ reply was so quick and so confident that it made Dean’s heart skip a beat. To know that Cas trusted Dean like that, well, it made Dean feel a lot better.

“So, you would trust me enough to stay here comfortably until you got back on suppressants?” Dean questioned. Dean watched Cas take a breath and nod.

“I trust you, Dean.”

Dean turned the tables and took the chance to search Cas’ eyes, to see what he could find in them.

He found what looked like a lot of conviction.

“Well, then, there should be no issue,” Dean told Cas, his voice gone quiet. “I still have work, anyways, so I’ll be out of the house a fair amount of the time,” Dean went on.  


“Dean, are you sure-”

“Cas,” Dean began, raising a hand up. “It’s fine,” he sighed after holding a moment of eye contact with Cas. “I promise, okay?”

Cas took a breath but ultimately gave a nod of his head, and Dean nodded back.

“Just, tell me when your first heat is coming and we’ll plan accordingly, okay?” Dean told Cas who simply nodded.

Dean thought to himself, after the subject was changed and the mood was lightened, just how things would actually work out. He knew for sure that there was no way he was kicking Cas out, but he had to wonder how well it would work out.

See, the thing was that the scent of someone usually offered somewhat of a compatibility reading. Since Cas had been on the suppressants for so long, Dean hadn’t really gotten any smell from Cas other than normal smells from soap and deodorant and things like that. So, once Cas got off the suppressants, and his actual scent came through, Dean would be getting a sneak peek at what kind of compatibility him and Cas actually had. Cas could have an appealing smell, or Cas could have a smell that didn’t interest Dean at all.

It just came down to the fact that it was all a matter of time.

\---

Cas told Dean the day he actually stopped taking the suppressants, then gave Dean a rough estimate of when his first heat would probably hit. Dean wasn’t really worried, at least not yet, since things still seemed fairly calm. They went about their usual routines, nothing seemed different. It was only when Cas came home one day, grocery bags in hand, that things began.

The second Cas came in the door, Dean started to smell something. It was a strange scent at first, and he dismissed it, not even thinking about the suppressants, not thinking that Cas’ scent would become apparent soon. All Dean was thinking of was groceries and helping Cas put them away.

Him and Cas were talking on and off, and Dean was going through the bags, that smell becoming more apparent as he continued to unpack things and set them in cabinets or shelves or wherever they needed to be. 

Dean started smelling whatever the hell it was more intently, starting to associate things with what he was smelling. Whatever it was was sort of a nature themed smell. It was soft, almost floral, but it mixed with other things. There was the scent of pine, the scent of lilacs, fresh cut grass, even spices underneath it that tied it together yet made it hard to pinpoint.

The smell felt like it was only getting stronger, and finally Dean just shook his head.

“Dude, did you buy like candles or something? Something smells,” Dean said, rifling through bags, still completely oblivious to the fact that Cas’ smell was something that was probably going to present itself soon.

“Does it smell good or bad?” Cas inquired, having gone almost completely still where he was standing next to the kitchen table. 

“Smells fucking good,” Dean huffed. 

“What does it smell like?” Cas questioned slowly. Dean didn’t even bother looking at him, just sighed and shook his head.

“Pine, flowers, spices. Like every good candle got mixed together and…” Dean trailed off as he glanced over at Cas who looked hesitant yet interested.

And then it hit him.

“Oh,” Dean simply said, voice gone soft.

There was a deafening pause in the room.

“Do I really smell like candles?” Cas inquired hesitantly. It was a question that would have struck Dean as funny if he hadn’t literally just been describing how good Cas smelled.

“Um, yeah?” Dean managed, leaning on the table and bringing a hand up to scratch the back of his neck, his gaze avoidant of Cas. “But, um, really good candles, like not the shitty kind, the kind that are, like, classics, like Yankee Candle.”

Cas was starting to look more amused than anything else, and Dean was starting to blush.

“So… I smell like candles?”

“Well,” Dean huffed, glancing up at Cas who was holding back a smirk. “No.”

Cas raised an eyebrow and Dean was sure that his cheeks were red.

“You smell like the things candles smell like. Like pine and lilacs and nutmeg and other spices and some uh,” Dean coughed. “Other stuff.”

Dean looked up at Cas who was still biting back a smirk.

“Dude. Stop looking at me like that,” Dean said simply, and Cas just turned, eyes still lit up, the ghost of a smile on his face as he went and continued putting groceries away.

“Okay,” Cas simply replied. “I’m not in heat yet, y’know,” Cas added and Dean waved a flippant hand.

“Well, duh, yeah, I know that,” Dean told Cas who glanced over his shoulder at Dean with an amused look.

“Okay. Good.”

Dean took a collective breath and let it out, feeling as though sinking through the floor would be nice right about then. It didn’t help that that smell brought out other things in Cas, or at least brought them to Dean’s attention. Like the shades of blue in his eyes or the sharpness of his cheekbones. The line of his jaw, that messy hair that Dean was suddenly dying to run his fingers through.

That wasn’t the worst part, however.

The worst part was that Dean knew that that attraction, at least some of it, wasn’t just because of biology or smelling Cas’ natural scent. It was because Dean had a hidden affinity for Cas that had started the second Dean grew closer to Cas. 

It was something that Dean knew he would really have to control once Cas’ first heat set in.

And, boy was that difficult.

\---

Dean knew, roughly, when Cas’ heat was going to hit. Cas had told him, plain and simple, and Dean had felt as though he had prepared for it thank you very much. Dean hadn’t really been around an omega in heat in awhile, but he remembered back in college there were a few omegas who went into heat that Dean would have to interact with, and Dean was always good at holding back.

That was Dean’s key piece of knowledge that he kept for himself; he was always good at holding back.

So, Dean believed that Cas in heat would be probably a lot easier than he had thought originally. When Cas had told him he was going off suppressants, Dean had admittedly had his little moment of panic. But, the closer it came to Cas’ heat, the more Dean relaxed. He could handle Cas’ natural smell fairly well, so that meant Cas’ heat wouldn’t be so bad, right?

Wrong.

Cas’ heat hit on a Sunday morning.

Dean woke up to the best smell he had ever smelt, and an itch under his skin. The second he sat up in bed, he knew just what was going on.

Immediately, he pushed away natural instincts, the parts of him that were telling him to find Cas, to just _find Cas_ , and, well, Dean pushed the following thoughts away. Cas was his _friend_ , Cas wasn’t some sweet omega living with Dean for Dean’s needs and convenience, Cas was his own person, he was strong and kind and smart and funny and Dean found that maybe, if he just kept telling himself the true facts about Cas, he’d been fine. That didn’t work, however, because Dean found that thinking about Cas in and of itself was a dangerous game because the more he thought about Cas the more he thought about Cas’ smell, the more he thought about Cas’ eyes and his cheeks and his perfect bone structure, his stupidly gorgeous smiles, every single thing that Dean found appealing about Cas.

It was like getting hit by a tidal wave, but the tidal wave was purely want and lust for Cas.

Dean got out of bed, and he managed to walk to the kitchen without going near Cas’ room, something that killed him because there was a smell coming from Cas’ room, the smell of Cas in heat, the smell of Cas who was undoubtedly was looking for a knot and Dean could give him that, Dean could give Cas what he wanted, _needed_ and-

Dean gave his face a little slap, and then another and another because he couldn’t keep thinking like that, there was no way he was going to get through one of Cas’ heats if he thought like that. So, Dean went to the kitchen, he got some fruit loops, he made coffee, and he sat down. And he just sat there. Trying not to stare at Cas’ door too much.

Dean managed to get through most of his morning like that, trying to focus on anything but Cas, focusing instead on things like color coding his fruit loops or re-organizing the utensils in the utensil drawer. He found that if he focused on minor things like that, he could get by. 

Dean thought about leaving the house, maybe going to a park or something, but he found that he couldn’t have just brought himself to do that. He found that an instinct in the very back of his head was telling him to stay in the apartment and keep Cas safe. Of course, he knew that the next day he would actually have to leave the house for work, and that he could accept, but for some reason, the fact that he had the opportunity to stay home, it was too good of an option, an option he just had to take. 

So, Dean stayed home and tried to keep himself occupied with even the stupidest and simplest tasks. He had ended up cleaning almost half of his room before he decided he’d venture out and into the bathroom.

Sadly, things didn’t go as planned.

Once Dean got out of his room, he could smell Cas a lot more than he could in his room, so that was hard enough. He figured that if he booked it to the bathroom, made things quick and snuck back into his room, he’d be fine. But, when he was right about to open the door to the bathroom, who came out of his room but Cas himself who was seemingly also headed for the bathroom.

The tension between them as they both stopped dead in their tracks was thick enough to be cut with a knife.

Cas stared over at Dean like a deer in the headlights, and Dean simply stared back, taking in Cas’ appearance. 

Cas’ hair was even messier than usual, little tufts of it sticking up here and there. His eyes were wide and almost glassy and his cheeks were flushed bright pink. He was in his pajamas, just a t-shirt and some sweatpants. 

He looked, to Dean, like the most appetising meal Dean had ever seen.

Dean’s gaze caught on his neck, God, that neck, long and tan and completely unblemished. Dean could only imagine what it would be like to mark up that neck, to suck and kiss and _bite_ and-

“Sorry,” Cas simply said, starting to back away from Dean a little. His voice was rougher than usual, but at the same time it was almost softer, almost submissive.

“Don’t apologize,” was Dean’s simple reply and he hated himself for how his voice came out, rough and low and almost predatory and, God, it was terrible. He cleared his throat and shook his head, opening his mouth and trying for a second time. “Don’t feel like you have to stay in your room, y’know. You live here too,” Dean insisted, trying to think of anything but just how good Cas looked in that moment.

Cas swallowed before giving a little nod of his head. Dean simply watched him as he gave Dean a little smile before slipping into the bathroom and closing the door, leaving Dean to sigh to himself and head back into his room, thinking that the next few days would be a little more difficult than he thought.

\---

Dean, thankfully, managed to get through the rest of Cas’ heat. After it was over, said and done, neither him nor Cas really said anything until one night during dinner where Cas piped up.

“Thank you, by the way,” he said softly, looking down at the food that Dean had cooked that night. Dean simply blinked from where he was sitting across from him at the kitchen table.

“For what?” Dean questioned blankly. Cas threw his gaze up to Dean.

“You never complained about my heat.”

Dean swallowed before shaking his head.

“There was nothing to complain about.”  
Cas smiled softly, looking back down at his food.

“There was plenty to complain about.”

“I promise you, Cas, there really wasn’t,” Dean assured Cas with a small smile. Cas smiled over at him and some form of understanding passed between them.  
It was after that that Cas’ heats continued and things continued to get easier. Cas assured Dean that he was still working on getting back on suppressants, but Dean found that he didn’t mind all too much.

Everything was going well, but underneath it all, there was a tension building. With every one of Cas’ heats, everytime both Dean and Cas had to hole up in their rooms, everytime Dean had to distract himself, everytime Cas had to try and avoid Dean, it grew. It went unsaid, but it was there, clear as day. And it was only so long before it snapped.

\---

Dean and Cas had gotten into a good sort of routine when Cas’ heats hit. They usually managed to stay in their separate lanes, and they usually kept to themselves. If they did bump into each other, it usually never resulted in anything other than tension and some awkward conversation. This time, it was different though.

It was a weekday and it had been a long fucking day for Dean. Dean got home, knew Cas was in heat because he was three days in already so Dean at least was spared the surprise element. He had had a rough day at work, got yelled at by his boss, had to deal with some rude customers, and overall, he felt like blowing off some steam.

Of course, it didn’t help that Cas was in heat. No, it didn’t help that Dean’s urges were driving him crazy. But he had them under control, he had been through enough of Cas’ heats to know what to do when he was really feeling on edge. One of those things was a cold shower. 

Dean usually found that if he turned the water cold enough it would not only prevent boners but also shock him out of those nasty train of thoughts that occasionally came with Cas’ heats, thoughts about what he wanted to do to Cas, what he wished he could say to Cas. So, Dean figured as he kicked off his shoes and socks and headed out of his room and to the bathroom that he would do exactly that, he would take a cold shower, he would get dinner, maybe watch a movie, and he would go to sleep and have a better day when he woke up.

Except all of that came to a halt when Dean was right in front of the bathroom door, and someone came out of the bathroom, opening up the door to stand right in front of Dean.  
Cas, himself, with pink cheeks and mussed wet hair, the only thing on his body a towel wrapped around his waist.

Low around his waist.

Dean didn’t even have it in him to stop the groan that came out of him. Cas’ entire chest was on display, the top of it flushed pink just like his cheeks, everything smooth, practically no hair, just smooth tan skin all over and _Jesus_ Dean could see his hip bones. It was obvious that he had probably showered to get rid of his smell but Dean could still smell it, it was everywhere, all around him, he felt like he was choking on it and ultimately, he felt like that wasn’t a bad thing.

The second he heard himself groan was the second he shook his head and stepped away from Cas.

“Sorry, sorry,” he managed, his voice tight. He didn’t have it in him to look at Cas until the silence between them went on for a little too long and he had to look up, had to see Cas’ reaction, see if Cas was horrified or if he was alright. And surprisingly enough, he looked very alright. 

“You always do such a good job of holding back when I’m in heat.”

Cas’ voice sounded like it was tinted with wonder. Dean sighed.

“Well, I’m your friend, I’m not gonna…” Dean waved a hand. “Do anything.”

Dean watched Cas lick his lips and swallow thickly.

“You know I have to hold back too.”

Dean blinked, momentarily drawing a blank.

“What do you mean?”

Cas smirked a little.

“Don’t play dumb. Don’t pretend like you don’t know what an omega is looking for in heat.”

Dean licked his lips. Oh.

“So?”

Cas looked like he was thinking something over, like he was chewing on words that he wasn’t sure wanted to come out or not.

“What if I say I’m tired of holding back?”

Dean stomach dropped all the way down past his feet and his heart leapt in his throat. Surely, there was no way Cas was saying what he was saying. There was no way he was actually implying… 

“What if I don’t want you to hold back?”

Dean looked Cas over in that moment, really looked him over. He tried to read his face as best he could, looked for whatever emotions he could find. In his eyes, there was seemingly multiple emotions all swimming around, but there was one that Dean could tell was present, up front and center in front of the others.  
Want.

Dean’s last thread broke.

Dean stepped forwards and slammed Cas against the doorframe, hard enough for Cas to wince with a little gasp.

“I won’t do this unless you want it, Cas,” Dean said, voice rough, low, practically possessive already. Cas drew in a shaky breath.

“Please.”

That was it. Dean’s mouth was on Cas’ the second Cas finished saying that one word. 

The kiss was forceful, rough, Dean pressing Cas even harder into the doorframe as Cas let out a long moan, arms wrapping around Dean’s waist, pulling him in closer, bodies flush together, Cas’ skin hot, almost feverish. There was nothing timid or shy about a single thing they were doing. There was nothing slow or thoughtful. It was all being run on pure instinct, and Dean could feel his blood pumping faster, rushing in his ears, overlaying these pretty little sounds Cas was making into one of the most ferocious kisses Dean had probably ever shared.

For a few moments, it was simply that, bodies pressed against one another, lips moving in a feverish tandem, neither of them able to think, the smell of arousal starting to curl through the air, making Dean groan as he hands moved over Cas’ skin, fingertips pressed harshly into Cas’ waist.

If not for the pure hurriedness of the situation and the lack of proper functional thoughts in Dean’s brain, Dean probably would have found it comedic they way Cas’ hands were fumbling to undo Dean’s belt as he repeatedly mumbled “bedroom” into messy kisses. Dean didn’t even register Cas’ repeated one word until Dean’s belt was on the floor and Cas’ hands were sliding up Dean’s shirt and Dean suddenly realized that, yes, “bedroom” would probably have been a good place to be.

The two of them stumbled to Cas’ bedroom, clothes trailing behind them, Dean trying to decide which was more important, getting his pants off or starting to bite at Cas’ neck. Dean decided, eventually, that pants would be the smarter thing to do, though Dean wasn’t always one for doing the smartest thing in the moment, so what ended up happening was Dean practically throwing a now nude Cas (the towel lay forgotten in the hallway) on the bed and pinning him there, listening to the whine that came from him at that.

“Pants,” Cas managed to gasp, obviously on the same train of thought as Dean. Dean, however, momentarily discarded this train of thought in lieu of pressing his lips to Cas’, groaning at the submission Cas offered, the way he opened his mouth up and arched up into Dean, practically clinging onto him, clawing at his back and likely leaving red marks that stung in just the right ways.

Dean bit at Cas’ lower lip until Cas was whimpering, nails digging into Dean’s shoulder blades. Dean finally pulled back a little, only enough to move his mouth to other places, lips brushing Cas’ pulse points, teeth settling themselves down as Cas bared his neck.

“Dean, Dean, jeans, get your jeans off,” Cas managed to pant again, obviously in just as much of a rush as Dean who was kissing and biting all over Cas’ neck. Dean groaned, finally gaining enough common sense and combined willpower to pull himself off of Cas, slide off the bed and work on tugging off his jeans and boxers.

“Christ, Cas, do you know how good you look right now?” Dean breathed out, almost falling out of his jeans as he eyed Cas who was lying spread out on the bed, back arched, cock hard and leaking against his stomach - the absolute picture of perfection to Dean. “Smell so fucking good when you’re in heat, so fucking good,” Dean sighed as he climbed back on the bed, now just as naked as Cas.

Dean hadn’t been with an omega in ages, and he had forgotten just how much raw need came out when there was an omega in heat offering themselves up. Dean felt drunk with all these emotions he hadn’t felt in forever, lust and greed and this pure want, this need to mark Cas up, to knot him, to do anything he could to him.  


Dean could smell Cas’ arousal heighten as Dean eyed him intently, climbing back up his body, kissing and sucking every inch of skin he could find.

“Dean, please,” Cas breathed as Dean nosed at Cas’ neck, giving it a gentle bite that made Cas keen. Dean threw one leg over Cas, straddling him and settling down a bit, just enough for their cocks to slot together and a gasp to be pulled from Cas. “Oh God,” Cas groaned, voice shaky as his hips thrust up in needy little circles.

“Wish I could do so much to you, Cas,” Dean mumbled into the crook of Cas’ neck, taking in the smell of pure, unadulterated arousal, one of the sweetest smells Dean had probably ever smelt. It was true, there were a million different things Dean wanted to do to Cas, but all of his instincts were screaming at him to just knot Cas.

Dean moved down a bit to bite and suck over the most biteable collarbones Dean had ever seen when Cas’ hands came and curled themselves into Dean’s hair, pulling just enough for it to sting. Dean let out a soft groan at that, moving his mouth down and using his teeth to tug at one of Cas’ nipples, something that made Cas gasp and his hips buck up into Dean who was looming over Cas in a way that was purely predatory.

“Dean, please,” Cas repeated as though those were the only words he had in him to say.

“Hold on, hold on, I got you,” Dean mumbled into his skin as he moved down Cas’ body more and more. He could feel his heart starting to beat faster at the thought of what was to come, blood still rushing in his ears as he pulled back to settle between Cas’ legs that spread themselves out of pure instinct. “Christ,” Dean groaned when he pulled back and saw the trails of slick leaking down Cas’ thighs.

Dean led a tentative hand down Cas’ thigh, Cas’ legs trying to spread themselves even wider, as wide as they could as Dean’s fingers found Cas’ rim and one slid inside him in one smooth motion.

Cas let out the most beautiful noise at that, a noise that Dean wanted to record and keep on tape and listen to a hundred more times.

“You don’t have to stretch me, I’ve been fucking myself on toys all day,” Cas breathed out, head tilted back, eyes squeezed shut. Dean hesitated, taking a moment to think of just how incredibly hot that was, and after a moment Cas spoke again. “Fuck, Dean, please, I need your knot,” Cas told Dean, voice rough, almost shaky. Dean groaned at that, immediately added two more fingers to the one already inside Cas, just making sure, feeling how stretched Cas was, not wanting to hurt him in any way.

True to his word, Cas seemed like he was stretched enough and Dean trusted him enough to proceed, swallowing thickly when Cas canted his hips up in just the right way.

“Please.”

That same word from earlier came back and became all Dean needed to guide his cock into Cas and bottom out in one smooth thrust.

His entire world imploded in that one moment.

Cas was tight and hot and slick and Dean was seeing stars, repeating Cas’ name over and over like a prayer as Cas wrapped his legs tight around Dean’s waist and let out a moan the neighbors probably heard.

Dean managed to finally get a grip on things, his hands finding Cas’ hips, gripping them hard enough to leave fingerprint shaped bruises for possibly days.

“Oh, fuck me,” Cas breathed out, eyes still shut tight, hands fisted in the sheets.

“Okay?” Dean managed to ask, wanting to make sure that Cas was okay, that he wasn’t in pain, that he was enjoying things just as much as Dean was. Which was a lot.

“More than,” Cas told Dean, finally opening up his eyes to look over at Dean. His eyes were glassy and he looked almost drunk, filled with a want that would be better described as need. 

Dean wanted to do anything he could to fulfill that need.

So, he started off the way he figured was best, a few shallow thrusts of his hips, letting Cas get used to him, listening to the content little noises Cas was making underneath him.

“You drive me fucking crazy when you’re in heat, Cas,” Dean sighed as he curled himself over Cas, going back to trying to kiss and bite and suck what skin he could get his mouth on.

“Ditto,” Cas breathed back, his hips moving into Dean’s thrusts. “Harder.”

Dean didn’t need to be told twice.

A rhythm soon started up, and soon enough, all caution was thrown to the wind. 

Dean’s mouth was all over Cas, sucking and biting, marking him up in the most primal way. Cas’ hands were back in Dean’s hair, tugging and pulling as Cas babbled encouragements, telling Dean “harder” and “faster”, egging him on and pulling himself into every one of Dean’s thrusts.

Dean felt like his skin was on fire. Dean felt like the world around him was burning, all there was was heat and Cas and this building feeling in the pit of his stomach, this raw primal urge to fuck Cas until Cas was begging for more and more. Which, eventually happened.

Dean felt like he had to be dreaming, there was no way he had his roommate, his friend, pinned underneath him, pulling himself back onto Dean’s cock, begging for it harder. There was no way that was happening.

Except, it was.

Eventually, with all of Cas’ verbal encouragement, Dean’s knot was starting to swell, threatening to pop on any thrust, both Cas and Dean panting and breathing like they were running a fucking marathon. It was only when Cas uttered an “Alpha, please”, that Dean was done for. He thrust in one final time and felt his knot lock into Cas, orgasm rushing over him in a wave of pleasure so intense he barely registered the scream Cas let out when he came, sticky stripes of come painting themselves all over his belly.

Dean’s ears were ringing as he simply collapsed onto Cas who accepted him, arms flopping around him, holding him as they both slowly cooled, left in an afterglow, Cas’ heat subsiding slowly and momentarily, Dean’s knot still stuck inside of Cas who didn’t seem to be complaining given the content humming he was doing.

“Holy shit,” Dean eventually breathed into the crook of Cas’ neck, still trying to catch his breath. “Holy shit,” he repeated when the full force of the situation crashed over him. He had just had sex. With Cas. And it was some of the best sex he had ever had. Sure, there wasn’t much foreplay and sure it was spur of the moment, but the fact that it was Cas, the fact that it was with an omega during an omega’s heat, that made it pretty fucking good.

And then it hit Dean.

“Oh shit.”

“What?” Cas mumbled, face still hidden in Dean’s neck.

“Condom. Cas, we didn’t use a condom.”

Panic bloomed immediately when Dean suddenly remembered this and also remembered that the best time, and sometimes only time, an omega could get pregnant was during a heat.

“Oh, God, Cas, this is bad,” Dean went on because there was no way, no _fucking_ way he was gonna end up having a child.

With his roommate.

“Jesus, Cas, why didn’t you say something?”

Cas began to say something but Dean carried on.

“Why didn’t I say something?” Dean then asked because he knew better, he took sex ed, he had common sense. “Oh, this is bad,” Dean huffed, pulling back and shaking his head. “Cas this is bad.”

Cas, underneath him, was obviously trying to talk, but Dean was too busying panicking to let him.

“We’re gonna have to do something about this, Cas, we can’t just-”

A light, yet still solid slap landed itself across Dean’s cheek, causing Dean to blink and then look down at Cas.

“I’m on birth control, Dean, stop freaking out,” Cas said calmly. Dean gaped at him.

“Uh, well you could have fucking told me that when-”

“You were too busy panicking! You wouldn’t let me talk!” Cas exclaimed. Dean sighed and shook his head, trying to shift around to a more comfortable position, realizing that he’d be stuck like that with Cas for a fair amount of time. He paused, then thought for a moment before managing a very blank,

“What did we just do?”

“What’s it look like, Dean?” Cas inquired, looking very unamused. Dean shook his head.

“No, I mean _what_ did we just do? Why did we just… why did we do that?” Dean inquired, his brain sapped of most energy that would usually be put into thinking.

“Because I’m an omega, you’re an alpha, and I’m in heat.”

Cas’ response was so calm that Dean had to look down at him.

“What, so this was just like… to get rid of tension?”

“Well, I mean, it’s not like that was the only reason,” Cas began, looking away from Dean. “I mean, I am… attracted to you.” Cas’ gaze shot back over to Dean, eyes wide and telling. “But, not per say, in the way someone would be attracted to a mate.”

“I’m sorry, but you kind of just took away half my thinking power with one of the most intense orgasms I’ve ever had, can you put that into simpler terms for me please and thank you,” Dean told Cas dryly. Cas rolled his eyes and shook his head. “What, so you’re saying you like me in a friend way?” Dean inquired. Cas nodded. Dean raised an eyebrow. “You like me in a friend way but somehow my dick is still up your ass right now.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cas sighed, shaking his head. “There’s this thing called friends with benefits,” Cas told Dean who, bingo, the lightbulb went off.

“Are you saying you want to be friends with benefits?” Dean questioned, trying to decide what, exactly, he thought of that notion.

“I’m just saying, this was kind of bound to happen since you’re an alpha, I’m an omega, and I go through a monthly heat. It happened once, it’ll probably happen again. I’m still working on the suppressants, if I can get on those then the heats will blow over and it’ll be a lot easier to live with each other. If, in the interim of me getting back on suppressants, you wanted to do this again, I wouldn’t mind,” Cas explained.

“So, you’d be fine with us having sex, what, like, during just your heat?” Dean questioned. Cas shrugged.

“Not necessarily. That’s what I’m saying. If you wanted to be friends with benefits, we could. Sex with no strings attached when we’re both in the mood,” Cas suggested. Dean bit his lip and thought for a minute.

He had had a few friends with benefits in the past, or people that he had the “no strings attached” policy with, and not all of them ended up well. On top of that, Cas was Dean’s roommate, if he started having sex with him with no strings attached, that could easily fuck up a lot of different things. Then again, Dean and Cas had already had sex once, so what more harm could a few more times do?

“It’s whatever you feel most comfortable with,” Cas chimed in underneath Dean. Dean sighed and shook his head.

“I guess let the friends with benefits begin then.”

\---

Turns out that being friends with benefits with Cas was the best decision Dean had made in, what he considered, his life.

Dean helped Cas through the rest of his heat, something that was beneficial to both Dean and Cas. Dean began to see it as something a lot less scary than he had originally thought, since, after all, they both got something out of it. It helped Cas’ heat and it eased a lot of Dean’s stress and tension. And both of them were consensually happy with the deal.

Even though Cas had told Dean that they could have sex when Cas wasn’t in heat, that’s how it started. For a few months, they only had sex when Cas was in heat, and it was wonderful. Flawless. There were a few things here and there that needed to be adjusted or talked about, like Cas didn’t want Dean leaving bites or marks and Dean didn’t want Cas ever feeling pressured, told him that if he was in heat and he didn’t feel like doing anything with Dean, that was fine.

Rarely was that the case though.

After those few months, however, sex started happening when Cas wasn’t in heat. Then, suddenly, it was happening all the time. Then, Cas got on the right suppressants so his heat subsided. Dean figured that the sex would kind of fade away then since Cas no longer had an actual primal urge, but no. They still had sex. A fair amount of the time too.

Dean found that everything was working fine. Everything was consensual, communication was pretty good, nothing was being disturbed between them. It was all great and smooth. Except one little thing;

Dean was maybe kind of falling a little bit in love.

Dean was fine at first, but it was as things progressed that he realized something was happening. It was this feeling in his chest that he got every now and then. He got it when he caught Cas in quiet moments. He got it when he saw the way the light of the TV glinted off his cheek bones. He felt it when he heard Cas humming little tunes to himself from whatever room he was in. He felt it when Cas laughed a true laugh, deep and happy and something that made Dean feel this warmth all over him. It developed and twisted and became a sort of fondness that Dean held dear, and originally convinced himself that it would go away. But it didn’t. It only got worse. It got to the point where Dean started feeling like it was all around him every day.

Dean, of course, ignored it, however, because he knew that there was nothing he could do with it. He couldn’t just tell Cas about it, no, he had to keep it hidden. So, he did.

Except, certain things made it a little hard to keep hidden. Like the first time Cas decided to have someone over. Someone who happened to be an alpha.

“I’m not kicking you out, Dean.”

“Except… you’re kicking me out,” Dean supplied from where he was on the couch. Cas crossed his arms from where he was standing in front of the TV.

“Listen, Meg is an old friend of mine and I’m not even saying you have to leave, okay, if you want to stay here, you live here too. But, I invited Meg over to watch a movie and just get some pizza. It’s no different than you having Benny over,” Cas explained, and Dean just rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dean grumbled, making a hand movement to try and urge Cas to get out of the way of the TV. “I’ll hole up in my room or something, how’s that?” Dean grumbled, flipping the channel.

“Fine, whatever makes you comfortable,” Cas agreed, heading out of the living room and back into his room. Dean watched him go and shook his head. Cas hadn’t told Dean yet what Meg was, but Dean wasn’t all too worried. He was, admittedly a little worried that something would end up happening, like Cas possibly getting handsy with this “Meg” character, but Cas kept describing her as a friend so Dean figured maybe it wasn’t so bad.

It was a few minutes into Dean simply flipping through channels, knowing that his spot on the couch would soon be upheaved, when a knock sounded on the door.  


Dean paused, then called out for Cas who turned out to be in the bathroom and urged Dean to get the door. Dean, setting the remote down, had no qualms about that, he figured it’d be nice to meet this “Meg” person anyways. So, he headed to the door, opened it up, and immediately, a possessive feeling spread over him.

Meg was pretty, dark hair, brown eyes, pale skin. Dean could tell, just from standing as close as he was to her, that she was an alpha. The smell was all over her and it was terrible.

“You must be Meg,” Dean managed, feeling this horrible feeling start to bloom inside of him. Suddenly, he didn’t like the idea of Meg coming inside, he didn’t like the idea of Meg sitting with Cas, sitting _too close_ to Cas probably.

“That’s me,” Meg replied with a little smile and a nod. Dean clucked his tongue and nodded, not even realizing that he wasn’t letting Meg in, not even aware that he was nearly guarding the door with one arm resting against the door frame.

It didn’t help that Dean knew Meg was doing the same thing to Dean, though likely on a lower level. She was sizing Dean up, trying to catch his scent. It was something that irked Dean. He didn’t want Meg to know his scent, he didn’t even want Meg to know Cas’ scent for fuck’s sake.

“You guys been friends for awhile?” Dean inquired, still keeping an arm resting against the door frame as if to say ‘This is my house and you’re not coming in anytime soon’.

“Yup, we go way back,” Meg replied with what was obviously a strained smile.

“Cas never really mentioned you,” Dean went on, not even paying attention to the display of possessiveness he was putting on. The only thing he knew and was focused on was Meg. What if Meg was lying? What if Meg was a new friend just saying that to earn Dean’s trust? Could Dean trust her? What was she going to do with Cas, _to_ Cas?

“Cas never mentioned he had an alpha roommate,” Meg shot back, obviously catching onto the game Dean was playing completely unpurposefully.

“Well, he should have.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?”

“I don’t know, how do you interpret it?” 

There was a pause of pure tension between Meg and Dean before Cas came out of the bathroom.

“Dean? Is Meg there?” he questioned, walking over to where Dean was still pretty much guarding the entire entryway and blocking off any way of Meg entering the house.

“Yup, I’m here, Cas,” Meg called out, likely knowing that Dean wasn’t about to pipe up anytime soon. Dean narrowed his eyes a bit before he felt Cas come up behind him.

“Dean,” Cas began somewhat cautiously.

“What?” Dean was close to growling when he replied, and he didn’t even notice it.

“Can you maybe let Meg in?” Cas inquired slowly. Dean sighed and finally stepped aside slowly, barely relenting enough space for Meg to slip by. Meg slipped by with a little smile, Dean wasn’t sure if it was meant to tease or not, and Dean closed the door behind her, immediately hating that her scent would probably linger in the apartment, that there would be another trace of alpha left behind.

“Dean, why don’t you go into your room so Meg and I can do some catching up,” Cas supposed, voice tight. Dean swallowed thickly, looking between Meg and Cas before simply stalking away, heading to his bedroom and closing the door.

Throughout the rest of the night all he could hear was Meg laughing, Cas laughing with her, something that made jealousy flare inside of Dean. Dean was always the one to make Cas laugh, Dean was always the one to share moments with Cas, to pick out DVDs and order pizza, something that was so easy because him and Cas knew each other’s orders, him and Cas knew what DVDs were each other’s favorites. And now, to Dean, it wasn’t fair that another alpha was stomping her way into Dean and Cas’ apartement.

Not at all.

When the night came to an end, however, when Dean no longer heard laughter or the hum of the TV, after Dean had heard the door open and close, he figured he’d venture out of his room. 

When he did, he was met with the sight of Cas cleaning up empty pizza boxes and empty cups from the living room.

“Is she gone?”

“Yup.”

Cas’ reply was curt and sharp in a way that Dean knew meant trouble.

“Do you want some help cleaning?” Dean then slowly ventured.

“Nope.”

“Is there something I can do?” Dean inquired, slowly walking into the living room, closer to Cas who was seemingly radiating a sort of anger. Cas paused and took a breath before standing up straight and looking directly over at Dean.

“What the fuck was that about?”

Dean blinked.

“What?”

Cas sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead before pointing to the door.

“Do you know how fucking possessive you looked when she came in? You wouldn’t even let her in the house, I had to literally ask you to step aside. You wouldn’t stop glaring at her and, Dean, I’m pretty sure you _growled_ at her a few times.”

“And?” Dean replied slowly. Cas’ eyes widened almost comically.

“And that’s fucking rude for one thing, and for another thing, she’s my _friend_. I treat all your friends with respect, meanwhile you’re all over Meg like she’s about to hunt me down,” Cas told Dean who shook his head and huffed a breath.

“Cas, she’s an alpha, there’s no telling what she’ll do to you.”

Cas looked completely vexed at those words as he shook his head.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Dean? She’s an alpha that happens to be my friend, okay, I’ve known her for awhile.”

“Then why haven’t you told me about her?” Dean questioned, raising his voice. 

“Because, Dean, I was scared that this exact thing would happen.”

“What, you were scared that I might get territorial?” Dean inquired. Cas grit his teeth.

“No, I was scared that you would act like you were my alpha and I belong to you. And y’know what, that’s exactly what you just did.”

It took Dean a moment, but then he added it all up, he took a step back and put together all his actions, everything he had done. He had been territorial, he had been possessive, he had been rude.

He had acted like Cas was his mate and he was staking claim.

“And y’know what Dean, yeah, you were helping me through my heats, you were knotting me when I needed it. And the friends with benefits thing began and you were fine, I was fine, we were both fine. But I think a line needs to be drawn when you get it in your head that I’m your omega and that I belong to you.”

“That’s not what I think!” Dean exclaimed. “I know you’re not my fucking omega, Cas, I’m not an idiot.”

“Then why were you just treating me like you thought exactly that?” Cas shot back, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Because I think I’m in love with you’, Dean’s brain supplied unhelpfully. 

Dean just blinked over at Cas, trying to come up with some reason, some excuse that would smooth things over. But, Cas was mad and when Cas got mad, he stayed mad.

“I’m not your omega, Dean, and you’re not my alpha. We’re friends.”

Those words hit Dean and sank to the bottom of his stomach like a stone.

“Friends who have sex on a fucking regular basis!” Dean shot back.

“That doesn’t mean you own me. That doesn’t mean that I’m yours.”

Those words just piled on top of Cas’ previous ones, made it feel like there was a weight crushing Dean’s chest. 

Cas simply shook his head, heading over to the kitchen and putting some cups in the sink and throwing some paper plates in the trash.

“I think we lost communication and I think we need to do something about it. I’m cleaning all this up and we’ll talk tomorrow,” Cas told Dean, tone cold. Dean huffed a breath and shook his head, turning on his heel and heading straight to his bedroom.

“Whatever.”

Dean felt, as he tried his best to get to sleep that night, that it should have never gotten to that point, that point where the lines were blurred when it came to ownership of each other. And he also thought that he was an idiot for not knowing that it was bound to happen.

\---

The next morning, Cas was at the table with a cup of coffee before Dean even was.

Dean sighed when he saw him, didn’t even make conversation until he had his own coffee and was sitting down across from Cas, avoiding eye contact.

“Good morning,” he managed.

“‘Morning,” Cas mumbled into his mug, his favorite mug, the one that Dean had gotten him as a gift, the pale yellow one with the little bees decorated all over it.

“You look like you’ve been overthinking.”

“Isn’t that my specialty?” Cas questioned. Dean couldn’t help but let a little smile creep onto his face as he shook his head.

Cas took a deep breath, looked down at his coffee and then over at Dean.

“I’m going to stay with my parents for a week.”

Dean’s heart stuttered in his chest, his breath catching in his throat. He looked up at Cas.

“Don’t tell me this is all because of Meg,” Dean began. Cas shook his head.

“No, it’s not all because of Meg. It’s because I need to think things over, and I can’t handle doing that when you’re around,” Cas explained. Dean raised an eyebrow.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Cas gave Dean a half hearted glare.

“Forgive me for having my own private life with my own private issues, Dean.”

Dean shook his head and raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Does any of this have to do with you going out at night all of the sudden?”

Cas froze at that.

“How did you-”

“An alpha always knows where his omega is,” Dean joked dryly, fighting the urge to smile when Cas glared even more. “I know when you leave the house, Cas.”

“Well, like I said, my private life, my private issues.”

“Fair enough,” Dean sighed, though his heart was still sinking at the thought of having to spend a week away from Cas.

“It’s not like I’m moving out or thinking of it, I’m just packing a suitcase and spending a week somewhere else, alright?” 

“Alright,” Dean replied quietly, taking a sip from his own mug.

“I’m leaving tomorrow. Luckily, my parents aren’t too far away,” Cas explained. Dean simply nodded. “Are you okay on your own?” Cas questioned. 

It was Dean’s turn to glare up at Cas.

“I’m not a baby, Cas, I can handle things on my own. I was alone here for awhile during the period where I needed to find a roommate.”

Cas’ lips quirked up in a half smile.

“You told me once that that was a very lonely time for you.”

Dean rolled his eyes, hating the fact that it was true. Ever since the beginning of college, Dean had always shared spaces with people, first starting with dorms, then moving on to shared apartments. Dean would hate to admit it, but he didn’t function best alone. Things always felt a little empty when he didn’t have a good friend by his side.

“I’ll be fine, Cas, alright?”

Cas paused and sighed, tracing the edge of his mug.

“Do you think we got too close to each other?”

Dean swallowed, looked up at Cas. He caught his gaze, found those eyes to be open and honest with something like sadness tinting them.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“It was bound to happen, wasn’t it?”

“Alphas live with omegas all the time. It’s rare for them to both be unclaimed but, it happens. They get through it. They stay friends,” Dean sighed. Cas’ lips quirked back up into that half smile.

“Isn’t that what we are?”

Dean looked into those honest, open eyes again and tried to figure out, for just a moment, why there was sadness in them. Dean sighed and shook his head, dropped his gaze when he gave up, when he figured he would leave Cas alone, let him figure out his own sadness. He was leaving for a week, he had his time.

“I guess you’re right.”

\---

Dean expected to handle a week without Cas on a fair level. Dean had spent a while away from Benny when Benny moved out, so there was nothing to really worry about, was there?

Well, turns out there was because it turns out that having Cas miles away from Dean was like someone had taken part of Dean’s heart and ripped it out of his chest.

And, yeah, okay, Dean may have been exaggerating with that image, but it was true. There was still the faint smell of Cas around, and it drove Dean wild knowing that he was gone and that was the closest to Cas he could get, walking by his room and getting a short whiff of lilac or nutmeg, or any of the lovely things Cas smelled like.

Dean spent a lot of time moping, even though he knew that that wasn’t what was best. Still, he couldn’t really help it. He couldn’t help it that thinking without Cas there was both harder and easier at the same time. He couldn’t help feeling somewhat abandoned. He couldn’t help any of it.

In his time alone, however, he did have a lot of time to think. And though, yes, it was harder on a certain level to think with Cas miles and miles away, but at the same time, it gave Dean the ability to try and sort out his emotions for Cas.

He figured he had them sorted out well enough by the time the week was almost over. He had thought about it and thought about it and come to the semi-conclusion that he would have to do something about Cas.

Dean didn’t like Cas as just a friend anymore, that was obvious. Dean liked him as a mate, Dean liked Cas as someone he wanted to mark up and claim and show to the world. Dean liked Cas as something he decided he would have a hard time living with. If more alphas came over, the same thing that happened with Meg would just happen again. During sex, the urge to bite Cas was just getting stronger and stronger to the point where Dean wasn’t sure he trusted himself. 

Dean knew he had to do something, and he had a feeling that that something was something involving getting a new roommate. The only issue was that Dean didn’t know if he had it in him to do that.

And, sure enough, when Cas came back from his week away, Dean knew he didn’t have it in him to kick Cas out.

Dean had a soft spot for Cas, and it only got worse as the days went on.

Once Cas had come back, however, he seemed a little more relaxed, a little more at ease. Him and Dean seemed to get along better and there were no hard feelings left over. Dean helped Cas unpack, Dean didn’t ask too much about Cas’ trip, only wanted to know that he had a good time.

It was all great, and Dean figured that maybe, just maybe, he could live with the pain of having fallen in love with his roommate when he spotted it.

A bruise on Cas’ hip.

It presented itself when Cas stretched his arms above his head and his shirt rose up. 

It was a little bruise, obviously fairly new, right on his hip bone.

It made Dean feel like the world was crashing and burning around him. 

Cas had obviously lied, or at least he had gone somewhere and found someone else he had obviously gotten involved with, probably had sex with this person. And it made Dean all the more angry when he remembered that Cas didn’t like to be marked up by Dean. He told Dean that he did like it, he just didn’t think it made sense for them to be marking each other if they didn’t belong to each other.

So, for days, Dean eyed that little bruise when he could, filled with a sorrow yet an indignant rage at the same time.

It was on the fourth day of Cas coming home that Dean finally broke.

Him and Cas were on the couch, Cas splayed out over it, Dean on the opposite side like Cas was poison. Cas seemingly didn’t notice Dean’s avoidance however, and his shirt had ridden up just so so that Dean could see that terrible bruise clear as day. It was then, a shitty movie playing in the background, lights low in their house, nachos sitting on the coffee table, that Dean finally just spoke up because he knew if he didn’t in that moment he would forever hold his peace.

“Cas,” Dean sighed, sitting up a little better and letting one foot slide to the ground.

“Hm?” Cas simply replied, reaching out for a nacho.

“Cas, we gotta talk, man.”

Cas blinked owlish blue eyes over at Dean, nacho still in hand.

“About what?”

Dean took a breath, his heart beating fast as he closed his eyes.

“Cas, listen, you went away, supposedly to your parents, and it was the hardest thing to endure having you gone from this house and I’ve decided that I really need you, but at the same time, we need to figure things out because this friends with benefits thing, it’s not working, Cas, okay, it hasn’t been working for like, a pretty long time and I just can’t stand you walking around the house all time, acting like we’re just friends which we are but the thing is that’s not what I want.”

Dean took another breath, eyes still closed because he wasn’t so sure he could look at Cas.

“Y’know, they say love is a big word and it is and I don’t want to say it but I do because I kind of think I’ve fallen in love with you, again, I don’t want to sound overdramatic, but I’m serious when I say there are some real tough feelings in here that want to get out but can’t because we’re keeping things at a friend level, and now you come home with a bruise, obviously from someone, I don’t know who but I know it’s not fair because if we’re friends with benefits then it’s the whole friend thing, y’know, I can’t keep you from going after other people but I just want you to know…”

Dean sighed, opened his eyes finally just because he could, because he had to. 

Cas was looking over at him with wide eyes. Dean could tell they were shocked but also filled with something else. He was sitting up now too, the nacho in hand having been discarded back to the tray it was originally in.

“I’m kind of maybe a little in love with you.”

Dean never thought he’d say those words, like, ever, but apparently they wanted and needed to come out.

Cas blinked and blinked before shaking his head, then surging forwards and capturing Dean in an off kilter kiss that took Dean by enough surprise that he fell backwards a bit on the couch, now having an eager Cas on top of him.

The kiss was soothing, but also alarming because that was not the reaction Dean was expecting. When Cas pulled away, Dean had questions that Cas seemingly knew because he gave Dean the right answers.

“Dean, the reason I went to stay with my parents was the exact reason you just said. I wanted to know how I felt about you because I knew that I felt something more than what friends feel for friends. I had to go home and have some time away from you to figure things out. After the whole Meg thing happened, I really needed to think things over because I knew we were both starting to get attached to each other. I just didn’t know how you felt,” Cas explained. Dean took in the words, feeling his heart start to beat faster.

“You’re joking.”

Cas shook his head.

“But what about the bruise?” Dean questioned. Cas smiled and shook his head.

“I walked into the table in my family’s dining room. I didn’t think that it would bruise, but apparently I was wrong. I guess I walked into it pretty hard,” Cas huffed.

“So, you’re telling me that you’re done with this whole friends with benefits thing too?” Dean inquired cautiously. Cas nodded. “So, you would like… let me take you out on a date?”

“I’d love to go on a date.”

Dean looked up into Cas’ eyes, sparkling with more happiness than Dean had seen in awhile.

“Wait, what about...” Dean began, and Cas raised an eyebrow. “Would you actually let me bite you now? Mark you up and everything?”

Cas grinned.

“As long as you promise to leave a good sized bite right here,” Cas told Dean, tapping the area between his neck and his shoulder.

Dean wanted to absolutely yell with joy.

“I can do that,” Dean managed to breathe out, eyes searching Cas’ face as a hand came up to cup his cheek. “I can definitely do that.”

“And when can you do that?” Cas inquired, eyes daring. Dean swallowed and licked his lips.

“When do you want me to do that?”

Cas let out a careless hum, nosing at Dean’s cheek, then nipping at Dean’s ear.

“I think right about now sounds good if you’re in the mood. I mean, we haven’t had sex in awhile, we just got on the same page on the feelings front, maybe we should celebrate and you should mark me up a little.”

Cas kissed the space behind Dean’s ear.

“Or a lot.”

Dean groaned. Just the thought of being able to actually go to town for once on Cas, to actually leaves bites and bruises, it was enough for arousal to simmer in the pit of his stomach.

“What do you say?”

Cas’ face popped back into Dean’s line of vision and Dean didn’t even answer, just cupped Cas’ face and brought him in for a kiss that was soft yet passionate, filled with things Dean wanted to tell Cas but didn’t have the courage to in that moment.

The kiss was probably the most calming thing Dean had experienced in what felt like forever. When him and Cas kissed before, it was always either too rough or too tame, hesitation always present in it, sex being the goal more than anything else, kissing just a prerequisite. But this, this was slow and smooth and sure it got a little messy but it soothed something inside of Dean.  


Chaste at first, the kiss turned eager fairly quickly. Dean could feel warmth start to envelope him, Cas’ body heat radiating off of Dean who was still lying underneath him. Dean’s hands smoothed themselves over Cas’ back as the kiss stoked a fire inside of Dean, brought that want inside of him to the surface.

Lips moved with an underlying fervor, soft noises starting to fall from Cas’ as Dean listened to every one of them and kept them inside, wishing he could replay them over and over. Cas’ hands started moving, carding through Dean’s hair, stroking themselves down Dean’s arms, they were everywhere as though Cas was trying to read Dean like braille.

That want inside both of them grew and grew until Cas was starting to grind his hips down in little, short thrusts, Dean feeling his half hard cock rubbing against his stomach through far too many layers of clothes.

Dean found, soon enough, that the clothes were obviously becoming an issue, so he slid his hands up Cas’ shirt, tugging at it a bit until Cas got the message, pulling away from Dean with a little gasped breath before he pulled back and tugged his shirt off and over his head, his hips moving back in the process, cock brushing Dean’s through even more pesky layers of fabric and pulling a hitched breath from Cas and a moan from Dean.

“Jesus, Cas,” Dean managed as he began to try and fumble with his own shirt, not taking his eyes off of Cas who was rocking his hips down onto Dean’s moving in a way that was only getting Dean harder, the blood that usually rushed to his brain in aid of functional thought quickly turning and heading south.

Cas’ hands were all over Dean the second skin was exposed, and Dean felt hot, way too hot, still in his jeans with Cas on top of him, his shirt having been thrown to the floor.

“Bedroom,” Dean finally managed after some torturous moments of Cas continuing to move his hips as though that’s what he was born to do, he was simply made to take Dean apart and destroy his libido.

Cas and Dean practically tumbled off the couch, Cas immediately grabbing Dean and pulling him close the second his feet hit the floor, pulling him into a hurried kiss as he led the way to the bedroom, fingers already fumbling with Dean’s belt.

“You’re eager,” Dean said, voice breathy, smirk growing on his lips and Cas finally pulled away from the kiss to pay more attention to the task of getting Dean’s pants off. Dean watched Cas simply roll his eyes.

“Yeah, like you aren’t. Bet you thought about biting me every time we fucked,” Cas supposed, raised eyebrows as he began working on the button and zipper of Dean’s jeans, the belt having been undone.

“Don’t get cocky,” Dean huffed, grabbing the belt loops on Cas’ jeans and tugging on them, pulling Cas’ forwards roughly, enough to make Cas let out a little gasp, his hips bucking up into Dean’s. “I will say you do have the perfect neck though,” Dean told Cas, their bodies completely flush together, Dean’s lips brushing the pulse points under Cas’ jaw. Dean could practically feel Cas’ pulse spike, could practically hear the hitch in his breath. 

“You’re the only alpha that’s ever marked it. The first time we had sex, that was the only time an alpha had ever done anything to it,” Cas admitted almost quietly. Dean licked his lips, took a breath and smelled that classic smell of an aroused omega on top of Cas’ regular smell, concentrated in his neck. It was no coincidence that omega’s smells were most noticeable on their neck.

“You’re kidding.”

“Why would I kid?”

Cas’ voice had a coy tone underlying it, and Dean couldn’t stand it. He leaned over a bit, grabbed the back of Cas’ thighs and picked him up in one swift movement, gaining a yelp from Cas who arms scrambled for purchase on Dean’s back.

“Dean,” Cas said, and there was a hint of laughter to his voice that made Dean smile. “What are you doing?”

“Bringing you to the bedroom,” Dean replied simply, carrying Cas the rest of the short distance there was to the bed. Once they were there, Dean leaned over, carefully set Cas down and immediately pressed his lips to Cas’ in a deep kiss that stole Cas’ words.

Dean kissed Cas until he couldn’t stand it anymore, kissed him until he had to pull away to breathe, panting into Cas’ neck for a moment before moving down his body, hooking his fingers in Cas’ jeans, tugging them down and helping Cas out of them with a little help from Cas who squirmed around until they were completely off and thrown to the side. Once they were, Cas immediately sat up and crawled towards the end of the bed, wicked smirk on his lips as he rose up on his knees and tugged Dean forwards by his belt loops, just as Dean had done to him earlier.

“Your turn,” he muttered, setting his lips against Dean’s as Dean immediately worked out getting out of both his jeans and his boxers, tossing them aside and climbing up on the bed with Cas who shifted back, scooting further and further up the bed until his head was resting on the pillows.

Dean couldn’t help it, just had to dive back down for another kiss, kissing Cas with all he had, hands roaming Cas’ skin that was hot, feverish, every inch of it on display, every inch being offered up to Dean.

The more they kissed, the more Dean could smell arousal present in the air, mixing in with the smell of Cas’ slick and Dean couldn’t help it, he had to. 

Still kissing Cas, he let some of his energy refocus, let one hand slip down, sliding down Cas’ body, cupping his hip, thumb brushing over his hip bone before sliding down his thigh. Cas seemed to know what Dean was thinking because he spread his legs wide on a moan that Dean mirrored when he slipped tentative fingers to Cas’ inner thigh where there was already slick leaking downwards.

“ _Dean_ ,” Cas gasped into Dean’s open mouth when Dean’s finger went back, teased at the space behind Cas’ balls before sliding directly over Cas’ hole.

“Dean, wait,” Cas breathed out, and Dean paused, pulling back to eye Cas. Cas looked almost crazed, hair wild, eyes bright and open, lips spit slick and kiss bruised.

“What?” Dean murmured, trying to get his brain to work normally, to actually function instead of just gape silently at how good Cas looked in that moment.

“Sit back,” Cas advised Dean, trying to sit up a little, Dean slowly letting him, backing up and wondering just where Cas was going. Dean watched Cas swallow thickly before he started to roll over.

And then Dean realized what he was doing.

Dean held his breath as he watched Cas slowly adjust, rolling over onto his stomach and sparing a glance back at Dean before sliding up onto his knees, keeping his elbows to the mattress, his head lying on them as though they were a pillow. Cas turned his head, looked back at Dean, ass up in the air in offering, eyes on fire with submission.

“If you’re gonna mark me up, I might as well present to you,” he told Dean softly. 

Dean wasn’t really registering rational statements, however, Dean was only admiring how fucking good Cas looked like that.

Cas had never presented to Dean in all the time that they were having sex. It kind of went unsaid, they never really talked about it, and it didn’t really bother Dean all too much. Omegas usually presented to mates, or possible mates. Presenting was something that Dean had to admit was fucking hot, but he figured he would never really ask Cas to do it. It was usually something that happened in relationships anyways. But now, holy shit, Dean felt like he had won the lottery.

“Jesus, Cas,” Dean muttered, shaking his head as he took in every inch of Cas that he could. “God, you’re fucking gorgeous.”

Cas smiled a little at that, looked away as though he were shy. Dean moved forwards a bit, placed a hand on the swell of Cas’ ass and slid it downwards, admiring the slick leaking down Cas’ thighs. He brushed a thumb over Cas’ hole, watched Cas shiver a little at that and Dean had to hold back a moan.

Cas was being more open than he had ever been with Dean. Cas was literally submitting to Dean, asking for something that Dean could easily give him.

Dean was literally at a loss for words for a few moments, and Cas was probably wondering what the hell was going on, but eventually, Dean found the ability to get his brain to get his body to actually _move_ and then, he was leaning over and swiping up a trail of slick with his tongue in one smooth lick from perineum to tailbone.

Cas gasped and jolted underneath Dean who simply smoothed a hand down Cas’ back in a soothing motion, taking things slow as he repeated that motion with his tongue over and over, Cas moaning underneath him the whole time.

Dean took his time, licking into Cas, getting his tongue as deep as he could, feeling copious amounts of slick leak out as Cas cried out underneath him.

It went on like that for seemingly forever before Cas was asking for Dean’s fingers and Dean was obliging, slipping in one finger alongside his tongue, then another finger, and another until Dean was pulling back and watching three fingers sink into Cas, Cas’ back still arched, ass stuck out obscenely.

“Dean, please,” Cas managed after he too had regained the ability to actually talk. “I’m stretched enough, I promise.”

“You sure?” Dean questioned from behind him, three fingers still sliding in and out of Cas at a good pace.

“Yes,” Cas groaned underneath Dean. Dean took a breath and pulled his fingers out, looking at the way they glistened with Cas’ slick.

“Here, roll over,” Dean instructed kindly, guiding Cas to roll back onto his back. Once he was on his back, legs spread, Dean looked down at his face. He still looked a little crazed, eyes glassy, cheeks bright pink, hair a mess.

It was a very good look on him.

“You ready?” Dean breathed out, and Cas gave a hurried nod. Dean took a breath, lining his cock up with Cas, leaning forwards and easing in in one smooth thrust that pulled a moan from both Dean and Cas.

The second Cas got used to the feeling of Dean, he was pulling Dean down, wrapping his legs around Dean’s waist and kissing him furiously and sloppily and it was the best damn kiss Dean felt like he had ever had.

“You gonna mark me up good and hard, _Alpha_?” Cas breathed teasingly into the kiss, a smirk playing on his lips. Dean groaned, hips grinding circles into Cas before pulling out and slamming back in, punching a breathless gasp out of Cas.

“Fuck yes I am,” Dean told Cas, catching him up in one last kiss before moving over to his neck, kissing and biting and licking and already going to fucking town.

Dean didn’t want to rush things, he really didn’t, but once Cas was arching up into him, baring his neck and muttering encouragements, Dean kind of lost it.

Dean bit and sucked and licked every part of Cas’ neck that he could reach, his hips thrusting into Cas hard and steady and fast, gaining eager moans from Cas who moved into every thrust. 

And when Dean got the right angle, Cas screamed so loud that Dean hoped the neighbors didn’t call the cops.

“Right there?” Dean muttered into Cas’ neck. Cas whimpered a little, followed by a moan and a nod.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he gasped, clenching down around Dean’s cock and gaining a groan from Dean. 

“Fuck, Cas, if you keep that up...” Dean began, trailing off and leaving a tender bite to the exact spot Cas had asked Dean to bite.

“Do it, fuck, Dean, c’mon. I know you wanna bite me, mark me up, knot me,” Cas breathed out. Dean grit his teeth and moaned, burying his face in Cas’ neck as he felt his knot start to swell up. “That’s it, c’mon,” Cas encouraged, clenching around Dean again.

“Fuck,” Dean hissed, thrusts beginning to stutter, warmth in the pit of his belly growing, spreading out.

“Dean, please,” Cas whined underneath Dean, baring his neck even more. “Please.”

Dean bit his lip, thrusts stuttering even more until finally, his knot popped, locking inside of Cas who came with a cry less than a second later, clenching so hard around Dean that Dean saw stars.

And, of course, Dean couldn’t forget what Cas had asked for originally. 

Dean’s teeth settled down harshly over the exact spot Cas had pointed out earlier, and Cas whimpered, clawing at Dean, one hand grasping the back of his head, neck still bared.

After a long enough moment, Dean pulled away, admired a bite that would definitely last. It hadn’t drawn blood, but it was definitely a harsh looking bruise.

“How’s it look?” Cas inquired breathily after a moment, looking up at Dean expectantly. Dean leaned down and gave Cas a soft kiss.

“It looks like you live with a possessive alpha who’s not afraid to leave any marks.”

Cas grinned, slowly and surely.

Dean smiled back, brushing some sweat damp hair off of Cas’ forehead.

“Do you know how badly and how long I’ve wanted to do that for?” Dean questioned softly.

“A long time I’m guessing,” Cas offered as Dean began to pepper his face with kisses.

“Mhm,” Dean hummed simply.

“If it’s any consolation it’s the same case here,” Cas sighed. Dean buried his face in Cas neck and huffed a breath of laughter.

“We must be pretty stupid to have taken this long, huh?” Dean mused. Cas nodded.

“Very stupid,” he replied, cupping the back of Dean’s head. “But at least we’re together now.”

Dean smiled, thought over all they had been through and nodded.

“You’re right.”

-Seven Years Later-

It had been a long fucking day for Dean, and Dean was ready for it to be over.

He was still getting used to a new job having left his old job at the garage near the city for a better paying job at a place outside the city. And, said new place outside the city was right near a new house that was recently bought by none other by Dean and Cas themselves.

It had been awhile, but after Dean had officially claimed Cas, the scar of a mating bite left behind, Cas had decided that living on the edge of the city in a tiny apartment wasn’t the best way to spend their new lifestyle, as Cas had called it.

Dean didn’t have too many complaints, thankfully. He was attached to that apartment just a little, but bidding it goodbye for a nicer, newer house with more room sounded a lot better. And, sure enough, it was a lot better.

Dean and Cas had done some renovation on the house, and it was looking pretty nice. Dean had gotten used to it, Cas had gotten used to it. They had gotten used to new neighbors and they had gotten used to this new thing called domesticity that Dean found he enjoyed a lot more than he cared to admit.

So, it was only domestic that Dean came home and slammed the door, dropping his things by it and stomping into the kitchen.  
“Dean?” Cas called out from… somewhere. Dean had told Cas the house was too big, but Cas had denied every accusation. It was obvious, however, that Dean’s mindset on the fact it was too big hadn’t changed.

“Kitchen!” Dean simply called back, opening the fridge in search of a beer. If Cas let him off the hook and let him just sit down on the couch, Dean figured he’d be golden.  
Dean heard footsteps come down the stairs and soon enough Cas appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Long day, huh?” Cas inquired, walking over to Dean and giving him a kiss before Dean could even reply.

“You ever think about taking that whole mind reading thing of yours and like using it to charge people to like, read their future or something?” Dean questioned as Cas walked around the island counter and rolled his eyes. Dean couldn’t help but quirk a little smile at that. “How was your day?” Dean then questioned. 

“My day was alright,” Cas told Dean. 

“How’s your project coming along?” Dean questioned, leaning on the counter.

Cas had stopped working for Chuck’s journal and had begun some more serious work with another journal, and Dean found that Cas was usually caught up in different projects for that journal. Cas never told Dean too much about them, always said it would just bore him.

“It’s going well,” Cas told Dean. Dean nodded, then paused when he saw a pensive sort of look on Cas’ face.

“What’s that look for?” Dean inquired, interest peaked. Cas looked like he was holding back a smile as he spoke.

“How’s your temperment for hearing some news?” Cas questioned. Dean blinked.

“Um, fine? I guess? What news?” Dean questioned. Cas quirked a little smile.

“Hold on,” he said simply, up and leaving the room, leaving Dean to wonder first of all, where Cas was going, and second of all, what he was doing.

Dean didn’t have much time to ponder it though before Cas came back into the kitchen holding a white envelope that looked like it had something in it.

“What’s that?” Dean asked cautiously as Cas set it on the counter and walked up next to Dean, leaning his hip against the counter and crossing his arms.

“Open it and find out,” Cas replied simply, his voice quiet. Dean glanced over at Cas who looked like he had some mixed emotions going on. Eventually, after staring at Cas for a little too long, Cas nodded down at the envelope. “Open it,” he insisted. Dean sighed and picked it up, shaking his head.

“You’ve got weird ways of breaking news to me, Cas. I hope this isn’t a bill, y’know, this house cost us enough money and…” Dean trailed off when he picked up what was in the envelope, the only thing that was in the envelope.

A pregnancy test.

A positive pregnancy test.

Dean blinked, and blinked, then blinked again before he looked over at Cas. Cas licked his lips, a hint of nervousness definitely lurking under what seemed to be a nonchalant facade.

“This is a joke.”

Cas’ lips twitched, and he bit his bottom one, seemingly hiding a smile.

“You’re not serious.”

Dean wouldn’t really be able to tell you why his first reaction was denial, and no he wasn’t necessarily proud of that but it was what was happening.

“Would I put a positive pregnancy test in an envelope and hand it to you as a joke?” Cas questioned calmly. Dean blinked. Well, when Cas put it that way…

“No?”

Dean’s voice was still uncertain.

Cas raised an eyebrow.

“Dean.”

Dean looked at Cas, looked him right in those blue eyes that he had known for years and years, blue eyes that he had fallen in love with.

“I’m pregnant.”

Hearing Cas actually say it, that was what made the denial inside of Dean start to wash away.

“You’re serious.”

It was more of a statement than a question, though there was still a hint of uncertainty in there.

“Yes.”

“We’re having a child.”

“I am the one bearing it, however,” Cas chimed in helpfully. That was what did it for Dean. That’s when the wonder washed over him, when the joy came, when all those feelings rained down.

“Holy shit,” Dean huffed, a smile growing on his face. “You’re pregnant.”

“And how do you feel about that?” Cas questioned almost cautiously. Dean stepped forwards and cupped Cas’ face in his hands.

“I feel like my life is about to be complete that’s how I feel,” Dean told Cas with a smile, leaning in and giving him a kiss. “When did you find out?”

“This morning,” Cas told Dean, Dean’s smile contagious, now moving to Cas. “I was gonna tell you before work, but, well, I wanted some time to keep the news to myself,” Cas explained.

“Do you know how good this is, Cas?” Dean inquired, still cupping Cas’ face in his hands. Cas grinned.

“I think I do.”

The two of them had agreed awhile back that they would both be interested in having a child, but the time never really seemed right. It was only now that it felt like perfect timing, even though they weren’t even particularly trying for a child to begin with.

“This means we’re gonna have like, our own little family. We’re gonna have a child. There’s gonna be a kid running around our house. Our kid,” Dean then added on, staring down at Cas unbelievingly. Cas grinned even wider, shrugging.

“Unless it’s twins.”

“Twins!” Dean simply exclaimed, earning a laugh from Cas who leaned forwards, slipping his arms around Dean’s waist and nuzzling into Dean’s neck.

“We’ll know for sure in a few months,” Cas told Dean softly, pressing a kiss to his neck. Dean shook his head and huffed a breath of laughter before wrapping his arms around Cas. He smiled, kissing the top of Cas’ head and thinking to himself that he really couldn’t ask for much more.

“Maybe it’ll even be triplets.”

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what ya thought!! i was gonna post this in chapters but ultimately decided that i dnt have the patience. i hope that you guys got something out of this though!!! if you did, leave a comment!!! if you liked, leave a kudo!!! if you want to contact me, hmu @ughcas on tumblr!!! 
> 
> thank you guys so so much for reading though, i appreciate it to no ends <333


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